New Faces
by Falco Player
Summary: Master Hand has started recruiting for the fifth generation of Smashers. With that comes new residents for Smash Mansion and a few visitors, and their interactions with the veteran Smashers. This story is also available on Archive of Our Own.
1. Inkling: Confirmation

Ace gripped her Splattershot as she waited outside the door of Smash Mansion. It was a massive ornate building and the land around it was no disappointment either. She could tell that the plants in the gardens had all been well attended to, just like the logo right above the door. Even the parking lot right behind her looked well maintained. The door to the mansion opened, on the other side was the one who had invited Ace. "Yo Master Hand you kept me waiting there," Ace said.

"Apologies," the hovering disembodied right hand said. Ace didn't bother questioning where his voice came from. She was too busy trying to hide the fact that Master Hand still weirded her out. "Come on in, the other Smashers are all gathered in the dining hall." Ace held her Splattershot at her side and grabbed the bag with her belongings (that was somehow vastly bigger on the inside than the outside) using her other hand as she followed Master Hand inside.

Everything in the mansion seemed too high class for Ace's taste. She prefered the kind of place where people didn't mind a little ink on the walls. In contrast Master Hand had made it so that any ink not being used for movement would be automatically cleaned up. The entry hall featured two large curving staircases that led up to the second floor and curved again in a spiral towards the third floor, between them was the door to the rest of the first floor. Paintings decorated the walls and there was even a chandelier. Master Hand gave an explanation of the mansion layout that Ace was only partially listening to as they walked to the dining hall.

Ace put on her game face when she walked into the dining hall. There were around five long tables that formed a loose pentagon shape, with all of the veteran Smashers sitting at them. Master Hand had told her to expect the strange but Ace hadn't expected to see humans in the mix of strange creatures. She was no history buff but even she knew about the ancient species that once ruled the Earth. "Everyone I'd like to introduce the first fighter of our fifth generation, Ace the Inkling," Master Hand said. "She's the first fighter to represent her world so expect to see some new decorations and the like in the mansion. At five there will be a concert with a popular singer duo from her world, the Squid Sisters. Now I have to get back to paperwork." Master Hand vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Ace in entirely unknown turf.

Before Ace could size up the other Smashers a short man wearing blue overalls and a red hat approached. "Nice to meet you Ace. I'm Mario from the Mushroom Kingdom. Welcome to the Smashers," the man said. He extended a gloved hand to Ace, she accepted it. She could tell that he was a team player, the type to lead the charge into enemy turf but also the type to come to a teammate's rescue at a moment's notice. Years of competition had taught her how to size up teammates and rivals with a quick look.

"Thanks. I hope I get along with all of you guys," Ace said. Mario returned to his seat and the other Smashers at Mario's table moved to make room for her. Her spot was between Mario and a blonde haired human man wearing a blue shirt. Ace put her bag at her feet and carefully put the Splattershot into it. Directly across from Ace was an even shorter yet still adult looking human with brown hair and a red shirt that had the number one on it. The table was filled with a large variety of food, some of which Ace hadn't seen before. She started by grabbing a bowl of vegetable soup. "So what are you names?" Ace asked as she picked up her spoon.

"My name is Peach, I'm from the same world as Mario," a blonde haired woman in a pink dress said. She was sitting directly across from Mario. Peach was the supporting type without a doubt, her tone of voice said everything. "This is V," Peach gestured to the human sitting across from Ace, "and that's Link," Peach pointed to the blue shirted human. Ace noticed Link had pointed ears, maybe he wasn't human like she thought he was?

"Cool," Ace said. "Man this soup is fresh. You guys must have a great cook." Ace snatched some mushroom rice balls to put on her plate and looked for other food items to grab.

"I made it," Link said. He said it so quietly Ace wondered if he had wanted anyone to hear it. She could tell that Link wasn't a pushover but he didn't seem assertive either. A good follower but not much of a leader. Still he wasn't the kind of person she would complain about having on her team.

"Thanks for making it then," Ace said. Link gave a slight nod, one that would have been difficult for Ace to notice without the awareness beaten into her by countless hours of Turf War and other Inksports.

"He doesn't like to talk most of the time," Peach explained. "I also helped with some of the food. Do you like cooking too?"

"Nah most I can make for myself is instant noodles. Usually I just snag some food in Inkopolis Plaza before running to a match," Ace said.

"Sounds like you're used to competition. What do you compete in?" Peach asked.

"Oh you know, some Turf War and whatever ranked Inksport is open at the moment," Ace said. When she got blank looks in return she nearly pulled up her Splattershot. She had to stop herself and remember it wasn't that kind of screw up. Hoping nobody noticed she dropped the Splattershot back into the bag. "Right, Master Hand said I shouldn't assume you guys know anything. See Inksports are... " Ace stopped herself. She had dedicated years of her life to Inksports, why was she struggling to explain them? "They're…" Peach nudged the Smasher to her right while Ace kicked her legs together under the table.

"Inklings like her have the power to generate ink and use it as ammunition for weapons, Inksports are when they fight each other using ink powered weapons. Turf War is the simplest and most popular of the Inksports." Ace's savior was a strange white bipedal creature with a purple tail. Despite the gratitude Ace felt she didn't like the aura he gave off, it was intimidating. Peach reminded him that he hadn't introduced himself yet. "My name is Mewtwo. I used my psychic powers to get that information, normally I refrain from that tactic."

"Thanks and sorry about that, guess I've been competing in them for so long it's hard for me to explain Inksports," Ace said. She flicked one of the tentacles hanging off the side of her head and grabbed a Crusty Seanwich to eat. Seanwichs were her usual post-defeat food.

"Do you want to go into town once you get everything unpacked?" V offered. Ace had nearly forgotten he was there. Things were starting to fall apart.

"Sure, scoping out the place sounds fun. Maybe I'll grab some new gear too," Ace responded. She quickly devoured the Crusty Seanwich and picked up her bag from the floor. "So which way to my room? The hand only said that it was sorted by 'generation.'"

"It should be on the third floor, the stairs are on your right once you leave this room," Peach said. Ace thanked Peach and took off from the dining hall. She slowed down as she ascended the staircase. _I can't let the fact that these guys are from other worlds throw me off guard ever again, even if a good number of them come from a species that's extinct in mine. Most of them still don't know me so my rep is still mostly intact,_ Ace thought to herself. _Crap, what if that Mewtwo guy can hear this? No he said he doesn't do that kind of stuff normally. Enough with the paranoia._

Once Ace reached the third floor she saw that someone had helpfully and hastifully scribbled directions on the wall. It reminded her of the grafiti from Inkopolis Square. Her room was right next to a balcony that let her see the garden and large lake behind the mansion. She dropped her bag by the door and ran out to the balcony. It was large enough to have couches and a table with plenty of room to spare. Ace looked around and spotted a hangar on the left side of the mansion. More importantly there were three Inkrails that had one end on the balcony. One led to the lower floors, another to the hangar, and the third went towards the lake.

After snapping a picture of the view with her phone and heading back inside Ace pulled out the key to her room and opened the door. It had plenty of room for Ace to pace when she got restless. The walls were white like an empty canvas and the bed was in a corner. Another thing Ace liked about the bed's position was the window she could look out from even while lying down. On the bed was a note from Master Hand telling her she was free to customize the room in any non-deadly or otherwise harmful way she liked. She didn't want to know the story behind why the non-deadly part had to be specified.

Ace started by pulling out her Tri-Slosher from the bag. She used it to throw ink onto the wall, changing the colors between each splash. When she was done the walls were coated with a chaotic mix of differently colored ink. Ace went back to the doorway and looked around the room, her bed was in the back left corner so the weapons would go on the right wall. She pulled out all of the wall hooks and weaponry she brought with her and placed them all over the wall. Next on the unpacking list was her gear, which the closet gradually expanded on the inside to accommodate. Once again Ace decided the obvious question wasn't worth bothering with. Then she unpacked the basic necessities in her private bathroom while appreciating the fact that she had one. She decided to leave the rest of the unpacking for when she had some furniture.

N-Zap 89' in hand Ace ran out of her room. She quickly backtracked to lock the door. Ace fired at the Inkrail leading to the lower floors as she ran towards it. With a leap she changed into her squid form and rode it down to the patio. She dashed into and through the mansion, running past some Smashers who had just left lunch with a quick shout of 'hey.' That was the kind of stuff she wanted them to see. V was waiting for her at the entry hall.

"How do you like your room?" V asked.

"It's pretty good. Just need to get some furniture for it with that discount Master Hand mentioned before I can unpack everything, I'm so not putting my computer on the floor," Ace said. She opened the door and walked out of the mansion. "Which car are we taking? Actually just to make sure, you can drive right? I'm still too young to have a license," Ace said.

"I can drive," V said. They walked together to one of the cars. Ace pulled out her phone as V started up the car and got on the road. Just like Master Hand had promised Ace's phone had been updated to include information on Smash Mansion and the surrounding area. There was even a chatroom for the Smashers.

"What are some good stores in Smashville?" Ace asked as she scrolled through the list of stores on her phone.

"I get all of my furniture from T&T Emporium, we should go there first," V said. Ace looked out the window. She wasn't used to taking in such green and peaceful scenery. Usually if she was out of Inkopolis it was because she had either super jumped to a battlefield for some Inksports or was doing part time work for Grizzco. It wasn't like there was much land left to admire in her world anyway. Ace thought about all of the things she would have to explain to the Smashers. She tried coming up with different explanations of things like the Octarians and Splatfests in her head to avoid a repeat of that debacle at lunch.

V parked the car near T&T Emporium, he and Ace hopped out of the car. Ace was surprised by how few people there were. Towns were even smaller than she thought. V greeted a few villagers as they walked to the store. Ace noticed that everyone addressed him as mayor. "So why didn't you tell me that you were the mayor earlier?" Ace asked.

"I don't like bragging. While we're on the subject Peach didn't mention it but she's a princess," V said as they walked into the store.

"Really? I mean it's not bragging if you actually are the mayor or a princess," Ace responded. She looked around T&T Emporium in wonder as they walked up the stairs to the second floor. Ace liked large stores but most of the time she shopped at the Galleria because of the convenient location. After they got to the second floor she ran over to the first desk she saw and examined it before making the purchase. Before V could catch up to her she was already dashing to a lamp.

Timmy, the anthropomorphic raccoon clerk for the second floor, was able to slow down Ace with an introduction long enough for V to catch up. "Do you have any of those fresh spinny chairs Timmy?" Ace asked.

"Yes, yes, let me show you the way," Timmy said. Following the purchase of the spinning chair Ace bought two shelves and got talked into buying a rug. Timmy set up the furniture to be delivered to Ace's room and bid farewell to Ace and V.

"You know I was planning on getting some new clothes but I've bought enough stuff for today," Ace said as they descended back to the first floor. A tall man with dark, somewhat greenish skin that Ace recognized from the dining hall walked into the store right as Ace stepped off of the stairs. He seemed like the selfish type, the kind who cared more about splatting enemies than the actual objective.

"Hi Ganondorf," V said.

"Greetings. Escorting the newcomer around town?" Ganondorf's voice was deep and more composed than Ace expected. He was also giving Ace the same analytical look she had given to everyone.

"Yeah, he is," Ace said. "Nice to meet you Ganondorf." Ace shook his hand. Even if she was cautious of him being polite was generally the optimal strategy when meeting new people. The clerk for the first floor, who Ace assumed was the twin of the second floor's clerk due to their identical appearance, ran over to them.

"Mister Ganondorf good news, we should be able to hold a charity drive for the Gerudo in two weeks."

"Thank you Tommy. Do you have any boxing gloves? Little Mac somehow talked me into trying out boxing," Ganondorf said.

"Right this way," Timmy responded. Ganondorf followed Timmy to a different part of the store.

"See you later Ganondorf," V said. Ace wasn't the kind to delude herself, her initial assessment of Ganondorf was wrong. It was another screw up but at least she was the only one who knew about it. She would have to improve her ability to read people. "Want me to show you the rest of Smashville while we're here?"

"Sure," Ace said. V took her on a quick tour of the different stores. There was a clothing store run by a trio of hedgehogs, a weapon store that had just struck a deal with Ammo Knights to sell ink weapons, a supermarket run by a humanoid creature with a mushroom like head called a Toad, and various other shops. When they were finished looking around they walked back to the car and drove back to Smash Mansion.

Ace and V split up when they got back, V went for a walk in the gardens while Ace went back into the mansion. She ran up the stairs to the third floor and back to her room. Thanks to Master Hand's powers the furniture she bought had already been teleported there. It wasn't much longer until the Squid Sisters were set to perform so Ace aimed to unpack as quickly as possible. First was the green rug, which she put in the center of the room. The two shelves were put on the wall opposite to the weapon wall, the lamp was placed next to the head of the bed, and the desk was put in the corner opposite the door. Ace moved the chair in front of the desk before unpacking the rest of her items, like her computer and speaker set.

"Attention all Smashers, the performance from the Squid Sisters will be starting soon. Please gather in the performance room on the first floor," Master Hand announced through the intercom system. Ace pumped her fist, she had finished unpacking just in time. She ran out of her room and this time she remembered to lock her door as she closed it. The ink on the ground from before had been cleaned up but the Inkrail leading downstairs was still active. Peach was sitting on a couch at the patio with another woman when Ace jumped off of the rail and onto the ground.

"Ace I forgot to warn you, Master Hand gives his announcements a little too early. The trick is to leave ten minutes after the announcement." Peach said when she saw Ace run towards the door.

"Wait, really? Oh come on," Ace complained. She stopped right in front of the door and walked back to the patio.

"On the bright side there were some things I wanted to talk to you about. Back in my world we have regular racing tournaments and we're looking for some new racers. After some negotiating with Master Hand he agreed to let me invite some people from other worlds. Do you want to compete?" Peach offered.

"Sure, sounds like fun. But I'll need a chance to get some practice in before it starts," Ace said. "What were some of the other things you wanted to talk about?"

"I can answer that," the woman sitting next to Peach said. Ace didn't try to get a read on her, the only safe to practice that skill was with people she wouldn't see again. "I should introduce myself properly first. My name is Zelda, princess of Hyrule. Every Saturday we like to gather up all of the female Smashers for a girl's only night. Would you like to take part in it?"

"I'm up for it," Ace said. She let herself fall into one of the chairs as Peach and Zelda resumed their earlier conversation. With invitations like that she clearly hadn't screwed up as badly as she thought she did. After a few minutes had passed Peach and Zelda got up from the couch to go to the concert. Ace jumped out of her chair and walked with them back into the mansion. When they reached the performance room the concert still hadn't started yet. There was a stage at the back of the room, tables for people to watch the performances, and a large snack bar next to the door.

Gradually the room began to fill up as the Smashers assembled. When everyone had arrived the Squid Sisters walked out onto the stage. Marie raised three fingers and Callie waved to Ace as they started the song, it was their classic hit 'City of Color.' Hearing it reminded Ace of when she first started competing in Inksports and had been recruited into the New Squidbeak Splatoon. She had put in a lot of effort to ascend to her current skill level after starting out as a newbie. So she could make the climb to the top again as a Smasher. Ace started dancing and some of the other Smashers joined in. She was going to enjoy her stay at Smash Mansion.

 **End of Chapter**

 **A/N: I'd like to take this time to describe how things are going to work for the rest of this story. There are going to be two kinds of chapters, the one you just read is a confirmation chapter. Obviously those are going to be written for characters that have been confirmed for Smash Switch. In addition to them I'll be writing visit chapters where a potential newcomer pays a visit to Smash Mansion. That's all, I hope you enjoyed reading this.**


	2. Spring Man: Visit

Spring Man took deep breaths as the crowd cheered. On the other side of Spring Stadium was the defeated Springtron, his robotic doppelganger. Their battle had gone down to the last hit. He waved to the crowd like he was in a good mood as he walked back to the locker room. He always felt like he couldn't afford to lose in Spring Stadium or to Springtron, so a match against Springtron in Spring Stadium had made him terrified of losing. Unfun fights like that always wore him out.

When Spring Man entered the locker room Max Brass was waiting for him with a bottle of water. "That was close, good job closing it out," Max Brass said. He and Spring Man shared a fist bump. Spring Man slipped off the Tribolt and Boomerang attachments he had used for the match and stored them in the locker. He took the water bottle. "One of the Smashers is right outside, I can give you some tips about that match when you come back from the visit," Max Brass said as Spring Man drank. Despite being the reigning champion Max Brass had always been generous with his offers to train and practice.

"Oh right, nearly forgot about that," Spring Man said. "That creepy robot always makes it hard for me to think. Why are we still letting one of Coyle's goons compete anyway?" Max Brass sighed.

"You were one of the people who fought to keep Helix in the league after that disaster in the Grand Prix finals, you should have realized that precedent would keep Springtron in too," Max Brass said.

"Well I don't have the heart to let Helix get kicked out, so I guess I'll put up with it for now. I should get going now, need to make a good impression on the Smashers. See ya," Spring Man said. He put his hand through his blue pompadour to make sure it was still in place, pushed open the door, and confidently stepped outside. One of the Smashers was waiting for Spring Man in the hallway. He was wearing a black tank top and green shorts. He had the analytical eyes of a veteran fighter.

"Hey, name's Little Mac. That was a good match back there," the Smasher said.

"Thanks," Spring Man said. "That was one of the narrowest wins I've had this year."

"You looked like you were about to fall over when you closed it out," Little Mac commented. "Don't worry I'm a boxer so I know how to look for that kind of stuff, the audience didn't notice," He added after seeing the panicked look on Spring Man's face. Neither of them knew what to say next. "Uh, anyway the car is right outside," Little Mac said. They walked towards the exit.

The moment they got out onto the city streets a horde of reporters descended on Spring Man. Cameras and microphones were aimed directly at him. He couldn't do anything to fight back. "Any comments on your recent victory?" "How do you feel about criticisms that you aren't taking the Arms League seriously?" "Are the rumors that Max Brass and Doctor Coyle used to be a couple true?" That last question made Spring Man want to throw up. Normally he would have tried to respond to a few of the more respectful questions but instead he hurried into a long limousine with Little Mac. Spring Man was quickly introduced to the driver, who was also Little Mac's coach, a man named Doc Louis.

As the car took off Spring Man closed his eyes and leaned back. In a matter of seconds he was asleep and completely missed the jump between dimensions. When they arrived at Smash Mansion Little Mac shook him awake. "Thanks. I feel so much better now," Spring Man said with a yawn as he regained consciousness. He got out of the limo and looked around.

Smash Mansion itself was large, and the area around it certainly wasn't small either. Spring Man guessed that the halls would be big enough for him to jog in on rainy days. The gardens had clear cut paths that would also make good jogging routes. There were also plenty of strange plants that he had a feeling weren't present in his world but he was confident they weren't dangerous. While he was looking around Little Mac exchanged a few words with Doc Louis before the coach drove back into the nearby town. "This is bigger than I thought it would be. Do you guys have any rooms with training equipment?" Spring Man asked.

"Yeah. And if it isn't good enough for you it will transform into something better. The Hands did something weird to make the mansion change in response to what we want. An entire boxing ring appeared out of nowhere after I showed up. The less you question the less your head will hurt," Little Mac said.

"That actually sounds pretty cool. You know I've only met Crazy Hand, is Master hand less, you know…" Spring Man tapped his foot as he tried to find the right word.

"You can actually keep up with what he's saying."

"That's a relief," Spring Man said. When Crazy Hand had scouted him the conversation they got into had been almost as exhausting as fighting Springtron. "So are you just going to show me around the place?"

"Basically," Little Mac said. "We can hit the dining hall right away if you want."

* * *

Spring Man fully extended one of his arms and grabbed a slice of pizza from a plate further up the table. He liked how much space the interior of the mansion had. A side effect of the ARMS gene was that it was easy to feel cramped in spaces where normal people wouldn't. He kept that information out of the description of the ARMS ability he gave the Smashers in the dining hall. "So some people in your world are just born with that ability?" Samus asked. She had her helmet in her lap as she ate some creamy heart soup.

"Yeah. It usually doesn't show until the teens though," Spring Man said, taking a large bite of the pizza slice. "I was a little freaked out when mine activated, but come on look at these things, they're too rad to complain about." Spring Man extended his arms to touch the ceiling and retracted them. From what he had seen having enough space to extend his arms wouldn't be an issue anywhere in the mansion.

"Well, I guess that's one way to look at it," Samus said. She looked down at her arms. Spring Man snagged another slice of pizza. "So there's a pretty big bounty on that Coyle woman's head. Where do you think she is?"

"Could ya not ask the newcomers for leads on bounties? He hasn't even signed up yet," Little Mac protested.

"He's connected to the case and I refuse to let Captain Falcon win our bet," Samus said. She pointed in the direction of someone who Spring Man assumed was Captain Falcon. Spring Man looked at Little Mac in confusion.

"They're trying to see who can get the biggest bounty from a newcomer's world. Stuff like this is pretty common whenever recruitment starts. Ace over there is already sick of it," Little Mac said, pointing out the first and so far only fifth generation Smasher. Unless Spring Man decided to accept the offer.

"If you want to track Coyle down then check ARMS Laboratory. Or anything ARMS related, she's obsessed with it," Spring Man said. He took yet another slice of pizza. Now that he thought about it he had no clue why Coyle seemed to have it out for him in particular. It was pretty obvious that Springtron hadn't been made out of admiration.

"Got it. See you later, I'm heading to the shooting range," Samus said. She got up from the table and put her helmet back on. A yellow mouse like creature leapt onto her shoulder and waved to Spring Man as she walked away. Little Mac sighed.

"Sorry about that, she can be pretty single minded whenever bounty hunting gets brought up. Anyway should you be eating that much pizza?" Little Mac asked.

"Don't worry, my arms use up a lot of energy so this fits into the diet," Spring Man said. He took a bowl of creamy meat soup and ate it quickly. After going through some more food Spring Man waited for Little Mac to finish eating. When he was done they got up and left to continue the tour.

* * *

The training room was filled with rows of neatly organized exercise equipment. They were so well maintained that they looked like they hadn't been used at all. The wall was a somewhat unsettling blank white, Spring Man figured he'd get used to it with time. There was a door on the left wall and a door on the right wall. "The left door leads to a room with a bunch of yoga mats. Right one is where we keep the boxing ring," Little Mac explained.

A woman entered the room through the door on the left, her skin was so white she looked like a mannequin. "Hello Little Mac," she said. Something was off about her voice. It didn't sound robotic but there was something in it that made Spring Man think of Byte and Springtron.

"Hey FT. Just showing the visitor around. Spring Man this is FT," Little Mac introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Spring Man said.

"Same on my side," FT responded. She stepped onto a treadmill and turned it on. "If you need any assistance with maintaining your body I can assist. I was created for that purpose," she said as she ran. Spring Man scratched his head as Little Mac sighed.

"Right I should probably explain that. FT here was made in some lab to be the perfect fitness trainer. She has the brain of a robot but her body is just like ours aside from the weird color," Little Mac said.

"My creators referred to me as 'Biological Pseudo Android Personal Fitness Trainer Model F,' I prefer the name FT. Master Hand brought me in during the fourth wave of recruitment to get some of the Smashers into shape, after my fighting ability was observed I was recruited as a Smasher," FT expositioned. She continued running on the treadmill. Little Mac winced. Spring Man suddenly had a feeling her training regimen was exactly how Master Hand saw her combat potential.

"I actually know somebody who has kind of a similar story, he was grown in a tube to compete in the ARMS League. Anyway if I end up as a Smasher I might try out some of your training," Spring Man said. Then he got an idea. "Actually if you need some more clients you could try working with Spring Gym, I can put you into contact with people there." FT turned her head to face Spring Man.

"Thank you. I have access to many resources and formulas for the creation of personalized training regimens so I should be able to assist that gym," FT said. She turned her head back forward. He still wasn't sure if being a Smasher fit with his goal of enhancing Spring Gym's reputation but at least now the attempt had gotten something for Spring Gym. Little Mac opened the door in the right wall and gestured for Spring Man to follow him.

The side room had a small boxing ring in one of its corners. A white sandbag with a pair of eyes drawn on it stood at the other side of the room. Some lights hung from the ceiling and there were a few windows on the upper part of the walls. Aside from that and a few pieces of equipment that were laid against the side of the boxing ring there was nothing else in the room. It gave the room a focused feeling that Spring Man liked. He could easily see himself spending hours there.

"Try not to knock the sandbag through the window," Little Mac said.

"Did that actually happen?" Spring Man asked.

"Uh, yeah," Little Mac awkwardly put his hands together. "Master Hand can immediately repair anything here but for some reason he still gets upset if anything does get broken."

"Well if I actually did punch that sandbag through the window it would totally be worth it," Spring Man said.

"Trust me you don't want to see Master Hand get angry," Little Mac said with a nervous laugh. "Anyway I guess this basically wraps up the tour. Unless there's something else you'd like to do."

"You said you're a boxer right? How about we have a friendly match right here?" Spring Man offered. Little Mac's face lit up.

"I'm up for it. I'm better at getting to know people through boxing than talking," Little Mac said. He ran to the lockers and grabbed two pairs of boxing gloves. He handed one of them to Spring Man before dashing to the further side of the boxing ring. Spring Man put on the gloves and jumped onto the closer side of the ring.

"Ready?"

"Yep. Let's go."

Spring Man extended his right arm to punch. Little Mac sidestepped and moved closer, then stopped and held up his arms to block a punch from Spring Man's left arm. With the size of the boxing ring the range advantage granted by the ARMS gene wasn't insurmountable but Little Mac still wasn't close enough to punch Spring Man. Spring Man threw a punch that curved to catch Little Mac's dodge and knocked him to the side.

"That was clever but I ain't gonna fall for it again," Little Mac said. Spring Man threw another punch. Little Mac blocked it and stepped forward. Spring Man also stepped forward as he threw another punch, then threw another behind it to catch any movement. Little Mac smirked. He ran towards the fists and leapt over them. Spring Man couldn't retract his arms in time to block. Little Mac's fist made contact with Spring Man's chest and sent him stumbling backwards as the boxer landed with both feet on the ground, immediately hopping back with both arms thrown up in defense.

"That move was pretty good too," Spring Man complimented. The way Little Mac moved around his punches and his leaping attack made Spring Man's superior range a non-issue. So he would have to stick with letting Little Mac stay in striking range and hope the curve of his punches were enough to catch Little Mac's dodges. He blocked a hit from Little Mac and retaliated. The counter attack was blocked and responded to with an equally futile attack. They kept the volley up for a while, attack, guard, attack, guard. Spring Man saw a chance to break the stalemate. He gathered energy for a rush attack and unleashed a rapid flurry of punches towards Little Mac. Little Mac dodged just in time and pulled out his own trump card.

"Star…" Little Mac's right fist charged towards Spring Man's chin "punch!" Little Mac landed the attack right as Spring Man struck him with the rush of punches. Spring Man went into the air while Little Mac was blown back. Little Mac kept his feet on the ground as he slid to the other end of the boxing ring while Spring Man crashed into the ring. Spring Man was able to pull himself up before Little Mac could offer to help.

"That was awesome. Guess you win," Spring Man said. He stretched his arms over to the locker and put the boxing gloves away.

"It was pretty close. Your punches are really strong," Little Mac said. He slipped his right hand out of it's glove and felt his cheek.

"Thanks. Well after that I'm ready to go back," Spring Man said.

"Got it. I'll walk you to the exit," Little Mac said. They shared a fist bump. If Spring Man did join the Smashers he knew who his rival was going to be. For now he was just focused on walking with Little Mac out of the mansion and back to his own world. He would make the decision after taking some time to think things through. Either way he didn't have any regrets about the visit.


	3. Rex and Pyra: Visit

When Rex was told he would be teleported into Smashville he wasn't sure what exactly he was expecting but it was definitely not landing face first on the ground. Yet that was exactly what happened. "Ow, a little warning would have been nice," Rex complained as he pushed himself up from the ground. Behind him Pyra also picked herself up.

"Well at least we're here," Pyra said. The duo took a few seconds to take in their surroundings. They had crashed into the sidewalk in front of a museum. On the other side of the street were a few shops and a cafe. Neither of them could see anything that looked like a mansion. At least it was a pleasant sunny day. All sorts of strange people walked around the town, Rex and Pyra only got a brief look from them. "It doesn't look like our guide is here."

 _"Or we were sent to the wrong place, he did have crazy in his name,"_ Mythra said from inside Pyra's mind. Pyra felt that it was rude but her other self did have a point. Rex looked around for some kind of landmark. Aside from the inhabitants and machines with wheels that seemed to move by themselves the town looked fairly normal.

"Excuse me sir, could you give us directions to Smash Mansion?" Pyra asked. The person she asked looked like an ordinary but short human aside from the part where the top of their head looked like a mushroom. In other words they didn't look like an ordinary human. Pyra thanked the strange person for the directions.

Before they could get going someone came running out of the cafe. He was a strange mostly blue and black bipedal creature that had a white spike coming out of the back of each hand. "Are you the visitors for today?" He asked. When Rex and Pyra answered yes he continued. "Crazy Hand was supposed to do this later and send you inside the mansion but then he decided to do his own thing. You call me Lucario, I'll be your guide for today." Mythra immediately reminded Pyra that she had called it.

"It's fine. Anyway nice to meet you, my name's Rex and this is Pyra." Rex shook hands with Lucario. With a flash of light from Pyra she swapped out for Mythra.

"And I'm Mythra," she said. "So does Crazy Hand do that kind of stuff often?"

"Unfortunately yes," Lucario said. He gave them an odd look before quickly turning around before either of them could comment on it. "So do you want to explore this town before heading to the mansion?"

"Could we take a look inside that museum? I want to see what the history of the other worlds look like," Mythra said. Lucario gave his approval and led the way into the museum. The main room had four different passageways leading to different sections. According to the signs the first floor was for the natural history of the town itself and the second was about the history of the other worlds. Standing in the middle of the main room was an anthropomorphic owl. A sleeping anthropomorphic owl.

"That's Blathers. He runs the museum but he's nocturnal so this happens all the time. He's used to visitors waking him up if you want to talk to him," Lucario explained.

"Nah, let's let him get some sleep. We can find our own way through here," Rex said. The group went up the staircase to the second floor. There were a large number of hallways, more than Rex was willing to put in the effort to count, and each of them had a different symbol above them. One of the hallways was blocked off by a barrier of blue light and had a sign next to it reading 'New Exhibit Coming Soon: Stories of The Great Turf War.' Mythra walked into the nearest passageway with only a brief look at the sign next to it. Lucario trailed behind her and Rex.

The next room was full of old armor and paintings. Mythra ran up to the largest painting to take a closer look at it. It was of a war between two armies of strange creatures with a gigantic tree looming over it in the background, a flash of green light was coming from the center of the tree. According to the text beneath the painting it was titled _War's End_ and showed the end of an infamous war, brought about by the sacrifice of the hero Sir Aaron. "That kind of looks like the world tree, don't you think?" Rex commented.

"It definitely looks similar," Mythra said.

"It's called the Tree of Beginning. Though in reality it's a rock formation," Lucario said.

"Oh is this from your world?" Mythra asked. Lucario nodded. "Looking at this picture reminds me of my world. Maybe they have some things in common." She turned her attention back to the painting and muttered something under her breath about the Aegis War. It was too quiet for Rex to notice. "You guys can go ahead if you want, I want to spend some more time looking at this painting," she said.

"I'll just explore the rest of this exhibit then," Rex said. He and Lucario left Mythra alone with the painting. Mythra eventually turned her attention to some of the other paintings in the room, she had seen enough armor for a lifetime. The rest of the paintings were high quality but didn't draw her in like _War's End._ She stopped at a piece titled _Mourning for a Hero._ A queen was holding a staff that Mythra recognized from the paintings that featured Sir Aaron. The queen had a sorrowful expression on her face. It was too familiar for Mythra's taste.

Mythra walked into the next room and stopped when she looked to her left and saw a statue of Sir Aaron, with Lucario standing by his side. The real Lucario was looking up at it. Rex was somewhere in one of the other rooms of the exhibit. Ignoring Pyra's pleas for tact Mythra walked up to Lucario. "You lived through all of this didn't you?" She asked, placing her right hand on her hip.

"So you caught on."

"Well the statue certainly gave it away. I'm guessing Rex just walked past it. Anyway want us to skip this exhibit? I'm also in the history books so I understand how you feel," Mythra said.

"I've put it in the past. While we're talking I may as well bring this up. I have the ability to see aura, the life force of all living beings. You and Rex have auras that seem to be constantly changing each other, I've never seen something like that," Lucario said.

"I did just dig into your past, so I'll share some of mine. Rex died when we first met. He's only standing now because Pyra shared our life force with him," Mythra said. "Not like I wouldn't have done the same or anything," she quickly added in a defensive tone, taking a small step forward. Lucario chuckled. "Hey stop that."

"Sorry, the way you said it was a little funny," Lucario said.

"It wasn't funny," Mythra insisted. She crossed her arms and took a few seconds to calm herself down. "So, uh, since we're already on the subject, how-"

"You can ask me about Sir Aaron." Lucario put his hands together and briefly glanced up at the statue.

"Was it that obvious? I just want to know what he was really like. I knew somebody who also ended up being a legendary hero and the records couldn't even get his food preferences right, not to mention some of the other stuff that got left out," Mythra said.

"He was a good friend and loyal to his kingdom. When he went to the Tree of Beginning to sacrifice himself he didn't tell anyone about his plan. He sealed me away so I wouldn't give my life in his place," Lucario explained. His voice was even and calm but Mythra could feel a few bits of sadness in it.

"Looks like we have a lot in common then. Addam sealed Pyra and I away once the war was over, our power was too destructive. By the time Rex broke it Addam had been dead for a long time," Mythra said. "Do you miss him?"

"Yes. But I don't let it drag me down. I had to make the same sacrifice Sir Aaron did so we met again in the afterlife. I'm standing here because Master Hand revived me, he needed my help to keep order between the worlds," Lucario said.

"I'm not sure if I would be able to do that," Mythra said. "I wish I could have at least been with Addam when he died but I'd only be insulting him if I stopped to mope. Nice to see that we have the same idea. I'd like to talk more about everything we've been through later. Right now we should get going, I want to see the rest of this museum," Mythra said. Lucario nodded and they moved to the next part of the exhibit. With a flash of light Mythra swapped out for Pyra.

"Thanks Lucario. Talking with you really helped, even if Mythra won't admit it," Pyra said.

* * *

As he walked into the exhibit on the Sheikah tribe Rex's eyes lit up. The room was filled with old, broken, and decayed technology. He had never been to a museum before but they always paid a good sum to salvagers who could get what they wanted. Someone else was already in the room, a blonde woman dressed in blue who was inspecting the largest machine. Rex eagerly ran next to her to take a closer look.

"This thing looks incredible," Rex said. He quickly read the label, it was an ancient war machine called a Guardian that could move autonomously. When it detected a target it would fire a laser at them. "Hey Pyra check this out, this thing sounds like it used to be a lot like Siren." Rex looked at the small gaps in the bottom of the Guardian, according to the label it used to have six legs that could bend to accommodate different elevations. He looked around and saw what was labeled as the leg of a Guardian. If it was really that flexible salvaging it would make a great profit, probably the most profitable part of the entire Guardian depending on how much the technology behind it was understood.

"Are you two the visitors I heard about?" the woman asked. Rex had almost completely forgotten about her in his excitement. Pyra walked over to join them.

"Yeah, sorry about barging in. I salvage this kind of stuff for a living so I got a little excited. My name's Rex, that over there is Pyra."

"My name is Zelda. I'm studying the ancient Sheikah technology so if you want to know more you can ask me." She shook hands with Rex and Pyra.

"How much of this thing do you understand? In my world there's a lot of ancient technology that we just don't understand," Rex asked.

"I'm making progress but there's a lot we don't understand, especially with how the Guardian actually operates. Before we could only turn them on and wait for the enemy to appear but recently I made a breakthrough," Zelda said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small slate, it appeared to be made out of the same material as the Guardian. "This is a Sheikah Slate, another marvel from the Ancient Sheikah." The screen on the slate came to life and displayed different icons.

"Woah, that looks incredible. What does it do?" Rex leaned in to take a closer look at the screen, Pyra pulled him back so Zelda could have more room.

"It can do a lot of things. Recently I was able to unlock a feature that lets me influence how Guardians operate, but it's far more complicated than any other feature. I was able to link it to a single operating Guardian but I don't know how, and I can't repeat it for some reason," Zelda said. She looked down at a symbol on her right hand.

"These things sound like they're dangerous. You're being careful right?" Pyra asked.

"We already learned a lesson about trusting the Guardians the hard way. The one I'm experimenting on doesn't have any legs and it's a trapped in a room that it can't destroy, even if it's corrupted it won't be able to cause any harm. Anyway I was able to change one thing about the Guardian with the Sheikah Slate. I can make it target things that it wouldn't have before but I'm still trying to understand just how it works," Zelda explained. She put the Sheikah Slate back in her pocket.

"That's so cool. You aren't thinking of actually using it though are you?" Rex put his right hand on the back of his head.

"Oh goddess no, the Guardians have destroyed enough already. But if I can fully understand how they work I might be able to use that knowledge for more peaceful purposes or make the Guardians harmless," Zelda said. "Right now my world is filled with ruins from more prosperous times. We need to do everything we can to bring ourselves back to that level." She glanced at the deactivated Guardian, taking a slight step away from it.

"I know how you feel. I'm always picking up relics from ancient civilizations and they seem to know way more than we do now. Space in our world is running out and people are squabbling over what space is left. That's why Pyra and I are going to fix it," Rex said.

"How do you fix a lack of space?" Zelda asked. Rex smiled.

"Well in our world there's a thing called the World Tree sitting right at the center, and on top of it is a paradise called Elysium. According to the stories people used to live up there with our divine father the Architect, but he sent us down to the Cloud Sea so we've been living on the Titans ever since. But now the Titans are dying out and if they go extinct we won't have anything to live on. So if we climb the World Tree and go back to Elysium there'll be enough space for everyone again," Rex said.

"I see, so you're in a race against time. I hope you and Pyra are able to reach it," Zelda said.

"Thank you," Pyra said. "I'm starting to feel better about our odds. We've found a lot of people who are willing to help."

"If you two do become Smashers I hope you'll have reached Elysium by then," Zelda said. Pyra held her right wrist with her left hand.

"Oh don't worry, we will," Rex said. "It was nice talking with you, we should probably go see the rest of the place while we still have time."

"Farewell for now," Zelda said, waving as Rex and Pyra rejoined Lucario and went to tour the rest of the museum.

* * *

The rest of the tour passed without incident, both for the museum and Smash Mansion itself. Pyra liked the cooking supplies in Smash Mansion, Mythra liked the lake that was nearby, and Rex liked the lack of rent. Lucario finished the tour by bringing them to the teleporter room that would return them to their world. "This was where you were supposed to arrive. We're going to need to wait for Master Hand before you can return," Lucario explained. "So, what did you think?"

"I just wish the rest of our friends could have come with us, Tora would have loved to see some of the technology you guys have," Rex said.

"If we become Smashers will we be able to invite our friends to the mansion?" Pyra asked.

"Yes. For some reason it's easier to summon people from worlds that already have a Smasher, so you would just have to input the right things into that console over there," Lucario said, pointing to the control panel.

"That sounds convenient, wouldn't want anyone else to land face first on the ground," Rex said. He put a hand on his cheek, the pain was mostly gone.

"It'll probably still happen to Zeke," Pyra said. "Will we be able to visit the other worlds?"

"Yes. One Smasher even used this teleporter to invite some of the other Smashers to her racing tournament," Lucario said.

"Your world sounds like it would be a lot of fun to explore Lucario. Maybe you could give us a tour of that too sometime," Rex said. Pyra awkwardly looked away.

"I'd only be able to show you around a small part of it," Lucario said.

"That's fine, I'm sure it's still great. And we can show you around our world once we reach Elysium, right Pyra?"

"That sounds like it would be fun," Pyra said. Master Hand teleported into the room. Rex and Pyra jumped back in surprise, Lucario was unfazed.

"Apologies for my tardiness, recruitment season is always extremely busy," Master Hand said.

"No problem. We'll send the letter when we make our decision," Rex said. He got onto the platform with Pyra. "It was fun visiting."

"Goodbye," Pyra said. Master Hand snapped his fingers and activated the teleporter. Rex and Pyra waved as they faded out of Smash Mansion and back into their world.


	4. Daisy: Confirmation

"Hey Peach, Luigi!" Daisy called out as she ran to meet the two veteran Smashers in front of Smash Mansion. She pulled two wheeled suitcases with her as a Toad hurried behind her with another.

"Daisy? You're the new fighter?" Luigi asked.

"Surprised? Peach spent the past few months training me how to fight," Daisy said. The Toad dropped the suitcase and ran back into town. Daisy waved goodbye to him. "So are you going to take me to my room?"

"Of course. Luigi why don't you pick up that suitcase? Daisy I'll take one of those off of your hands," Peach said.

"Thanks," Daisy said. She let go of one of the suitcases so Peach could take it and they walked up the stairs to the front door of the mansion. When they got inside Daisy was impressed, it reminded her of her home in Sarasaland. She looked around as she ascended the staircase to the third floor.

Daisy's room was near a balcony overlooking the lake. The room across from hers had a nameplate marked 'Ace.' "Do you want some help unpacking?" Peach offered.

"No thanks, I can do it myself," Daisy said.

"All right then. When you're done Master Hand said he'll give you a tour," Peach said.

"Neat. Thanks for the help. I'll see you guys around." Daisy waved as Peach and Luigi walked down the hallway. She opened the door and pulled in the three suitcases. Her furniture had already been brought over, complete with a flower vase containing daisies. The side table was right by the window so the daisies could get the sunlight she needed and her vanity was next to the closet. She started by unpacking the clothes, putting the dresses on the right side of her closet and her sports clothing on the left side.

Next were the sports trophies, which she lined up on a shelf. After unpacking all of the other items she took her journal and sat on her bed, it was nice and hard, the way she liked it. Daisy took a pen from the side table and started writing in the journal.

 _Just arrived at Smash Mansion and got my room all set up. It's right next to the balcony which has a great view. After the tour I'm going to find some time to glide down to the lake with my parasol. I want to get in some more training rounds with Peach before my first fight too. Letting my first match as a Smasher end in defeat is NOT an option._

Daisy closed the journal and put it on the side table. She took a few seconds to check her appearance in the vanity before exiting the room. At the same time someone left the room that was to the left of Daisy's room. The other person was a girl with black hair and a white brimmed hat with a small arch of red on it. She was wearing a blue shirt and a dark red skirt, long blue socks came up from her shoes. A yellow bag hung at her right side. "Hi I'm Daisy." The girl took a second to gather her words.

"Nice to meet you Daisy, my name is Leaf," the girl said. She extended her hand, Daisy shook it. "I'm new here, just checked out my room."

"I just arrived too," Daisy said. "When the tour is over let's do something together, us newcomers should support each other."

"Uh sure. Oh I know we could have a picnic somewhere," Leaf said as she put her hands together. "My big brother is a veteran and he told me we can use the teleporter freely,"

"That sounds great," Daisy said. Master Hand warped into the hallway. Leaf leapt back and pulled a red and white sphere out of her bag. She put it back with a sheepish look on her face.

"Most people react like that the first time," Master Hand said. "So I see you two have already met. There's just one more person we're waiting for and then we can start the tour." Right on cue someone walked down the hallway. He was an Inkling boy his two hair tentacles tied into a topknot. "There he is. Daisy, Leaf, this is Nept. Nept this is Daisy and Leaf, like you they just arrived here."

"Yo," Nept said. He walked up to them and shook their hands. "Hey, you were at the racing tournament in the Mushroom Kingdom right?" He asked Daisy.

"I thought you looked familiar. Nice to see you again," Daisy said.

"You two know each other?" Leaf asked.

"A friend of mine is a veteran fighter so she used the teleporter here to invite some people to a racing tournament," Daisy explained.

"I see. Well it's good to meet you Nept," Leaf said, resting her right hand on top of her bag. "Daisy and I were just talking about having a picnic together, do you want to come along? Maybe we could invite the girl from that room over there," She pointed to the room with the nameplate saying 'Ace.'

"Thanks, that sounds cool. Ace is from my world and a fellow member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon so I'll try to get her to come," Nept said, puffing out his chest.

"Does… does everyone else already know each other?" Leaf asked. It was easy to see the panic in her face.

"Relax Leaf, there's plenty of people here none of us know. You said your big brother is also a veteran right?" Daisy comforted.

"Right, I'm feeling a little better now. Thanks," Leaf said.

"Now let us begin the tour," Master Hand said. He led the trio around the mansion, showing off the various rooms. Leaf quickly snatched a book to put in her bag when they went into the library. When they left the armory it took everyone a few seconds to realize Nept had stayed behind to stare at the weapons and they went back to grab him. At the garage Daisy daydreamed about driving the various vehicles stored in it, like the small spaceships that Master Hand referred to as Arwings. The tour ended in the dining room, since it wasn't time for lunch they were the only ones there. "And that concludes the tour, the kitchen is through the doors in the back. Come to my office if you have any more questions," Master Hand said. He teleported out of the room.

"Well since we're here I think it would be a good idea to start packing for the picnic," Leaf said.

"I'll text Ace and ask her if she wants to come along," Nept said, pulling out his phone. Leaf led the way into the kitchen. Thankfully the various cabinets were all labeled with what they contained. Daisy opened the refrigerator as Leaf started making a sandwich for herself. Leaf pulled out the red and white sphere from earlier and opened it. A stream of white light came from it and arched into the ground, forming into a creature. It was a quadruped with bright green skin and a yellow bud growing out of its back.

"This is Fushigisou, you can just call him Fushi," Leaf said. "My brother also has an Ivysaur so I gave him that nickname to make things easier. Fushi the berries are over there, could you grab some for me?" Vines extended from the leaves around the bud on Fushi's back, pulling open one of the cabinets and grabbing a few bags with berries one by one.

"She's cute," Daisy said. Nept grabbed a bag of potato chips from the cabinet.

"Well this is all I need for my lunch," Nept said.

"Ugh, Nept you're such a rookie it hurts." The trio turned around, Ace was standing in the door of the kitchen. An Ink Tank was resting on her back and a Splattershot was in a holster on her hip. "Thanks for the invite by the way. Where are we having this picnic?"

"Either that lake by the back or one of the other worlds," Daisy said. She grabbed a picnic basket from the cabinet above the refrigerator and Nept put the bag of chips in it.

"Sounds good. Also why is Ivysaur a different color all of a sudden?" Ace kneeled down to get a closer look at Fushi.

"This is a different Ivysaur from the one my brother has, the color difference is a rare trait he was born with," Leaf explained. "I don't think we've met yet, my name is Leaf."

"So you're Red's little sister?" Leaf nodded her head. "Cool. I'm Ace." Ace held out her fist, Leaf gave her a fist bump. "I heard the Hands have already scouted two new locations for the tournament. Moray Towers from my world and some place called the Great Plateau from Link's world. How about we go check out that Great Plateau place for the picnic?"

"Sounds good to me," Daisy said. Leaf nodded in agreement again as she put her sandwich in a ziplock bag.

"Moray Towers, really? That place is no fun to fight in," Nept complained.

"Hey you didn't have to endure it before they added those Ink Rails. That was the real Charger hell," Ace responded. Leaf packed in some food for her Pokemon as Daisy got food for the rest of the group. Nept snatched a box of cookies and Ace grabbed some drinks. "Oh Nept it's a rule to always be combat ready when using the teleporter so I grabbed your gear for you." Ace took a small pouch out of her pocket and pulled out a vastly larger Inktank and Splattershot with a holster, Nept took both.

"Thanks. Did Sheldon make the holster?" Nept asked.

"Yeah, it's one of his projects for the Splatoon. Not much use for it with Turf War and the like," Ace answered.

"Let's get going already," Daisy said. She picked up the picnic basket and led the way out of the kitchen.

"So Nept, Ace, how exactly do you two know each other?" Leaf asked as Daisy threw open the dining hall door.

"We're both part of the New Squidbeak Splatoon," Nept said, taking out his Splattershot and twirling it before returning it to his holster. "It's a secret group dedicated to keeping our home city of Inkopolis safe. I'm agent 4 and Ace is agent 3."

"Wow that's cool," Leaf said. "Wait should you guys be talking about it so openly then?"

"It's fine, you're not from our world," Ace said. They reached the teleporter room, Ace held the door open for the rest of the group. Leaf walked over to the console that controlled the teleporter.

"I've got it set up. Everyone ready?" Leaf asked. When she got the affirmative she turned on the teleporter and ran over to join the others. It turned on and in a flash they were absent from Smash Mansion.

* * *

The group appeared on a ruined staircase. Behind them were the ruins of an ancient temple and a snow covered mountain, and in front of them was a large tower. It was a clear and sunny day, which Fushi made his appreciation of clear with contented sounds. "Let's go climb that tower, the view from there is going to be great" Daisy suggested.

"Good thinking," Leaf said. "I'd love to explore this place with my Pokemon some time so the tower would let me scope the area out.

"Are you sure? It looks like a pretty big climb," Nept said.

"That means we'll be in the perfect mood to eat once we get to the top," Daisy said. Nept looked at the ground and mumbled his reluctant agreement. The sound of turning gears filled the air.

"Uh, you guys hear that too right?" Ace asked. Before anyone could answer a machine stepped into view, climbing up from a small depression in the ground that had a small pool of water. It had six long legs and a single glowing eye. A red targeting laser came from the eye and targeted Daisy. "That's a Guardian, everyone move!" The group scattered immediately as a blue laser beam created an explosion where they had been standing.

"What is that thing?!" Leaf yelled.

"Who cares we need to destroy it before it kills us," Nept shouted back. The Guardian took aim at Daisy again.

"I'll distract him," Daisy said. She waited until the Guardian began charging and leapt away, hovering in the middle of air away from the laser and explosion. Ace changed her hair and ink color to blue and gave a hand signal to Nept. They fired their Splattershots as they ran towards the Guardian, submerging themselves into the ink whenever the targeting laser turned to them. It was enough to fool the Guardian, whose attention kept on returning to Daisy. She had placed the picnic basket behind cover so it wouldn't get damaged before running back into its view.

"Fushi use Leech Seed," Leaf commanded. A small seed shot out from the bud on Fushi's back and landed on top of the Guardian, vines erupted from the seed to cover it. Ace leapt up from the ink and fired shots into the Guardian's eye before submerging again. Nept copied the motion. The Guardian's targeting laser turned to Leaf.

Instantly Leaf made a run for cover. Without prompting Fushi arched forwards and shot seeds with the force of bullets into the eye of the Guardian. Daisy landed back on the ground and used white magic to create a turnip in her hands, she threw it into the eye of the Guardian as it aimed at Fushi. "We aren't damaging it enough," Ace said as she leapt out for another shot. Leaf was crouched behind a ruined column, shouting orders to Fushi and too filled with panic to focus. "Leaf warp back and get someone from this world," Ace yelled over the sound of another missed Guardian laser.

Leaf stopped cowering, something about Ace's request had enraged her. She was a trainer, running while her Pokemon fought wasn't what she did. It was her job to come up with a plan. That was what she had always done for her Pokemon. Whatever the Guardian was it would pay for making her lose her composure as a trainer. Leaf pulled down the brim of her hat. "No. Everyone I have a plan. Ace, Nept, what else do you have on you?"

"Just some Splat Bombs and a Roller, I don't think ink works on this thing," Nept answered as a turnip nearly hit him instead of the Guardian. "Watch it Daisy!"

"Sorry."

"Nept keep a closer eye on what everyone else is doing or you're going to get yourself killed," Ace said.

"Is the explosion from the bombs powerful enough to throw the Guardian off balance?" Leaf asked. She ducked her head back behind the column before the Guardian could target her.

"Oh I see. You want us to knock it over, good thinking," Ace said.

"Exactly, put them on the front side so the Guardian gets sent backwards. Daisy get the Guardian to target you for the next blast, once the bombs go off Fushi is going to use solar beam but it needs a few seconds to charge even with sunlight. Ace and Nept, you two should get away from the Guardian once the bombs are out," Leaf said. "Everyone understand. Good, Fushi use Solar Beam."

"Hey ugly," Daisy loudly taunted as she stepped into the Guardian's targeting beam. At the same time Nept and Ace popped up in front of the Guardian to drop Splat Bombs right under it. Fushi began charging solar energy in the bud on its back. The laser fired. The Splat Bombs went off. Daisy dodged. The Guardian titled backwards. Fushi sent Solar Beam at it. The force of the beam knocked over the Guardian.

The Guardian's legs bended downwards and towards the ruined column next to it. It pulled itself back upright using the column. The targeting laser was aimed at Daisy, who was running directly at it with a battle cry of "just admit defeat already you loser." Daisy sidestepped the laser and was right in front of the Guardian. She leapt up and slammed her hip into the Guardian, tilting it back. Ace tossed a Splat Bomb to add more force to push it back, Nept threw his as well when he realized what the plan was. The Guardian fell over once again, its 'head' was on the ground with its legs moving wildly through the air to find something solid.

"Everyone go for the legs with your strongest attacks. Fushi pull the legs off with Vine Whip," Leaf ordered. Right as one of the Guardian's legs touched the column Fushi's vines wrapped around it. After some struggle the leg snapped off. Ace and Nept covered the Guardian in ink, swam up it, and used their Rollers to slam the legs off of it, ducking into ink before the Guardian could fire a laser at them. Daisy took out a golf club and beat one of the legs with it until it detached from the Guardian.

"Only two left. Ace, Nept team up on one. Daisy help Fushi with the other one." The two Inklings regrouped at one of the remaining legs and sent it crashing off with a simultaneous strike from their Rollers. Fushi's vines wrapped around the last leg and pulled on them, a strike from Daisy's golf club added enough force to sever it from the Guardian's body. Ace and Nept ran in front of the Guardian's eye and finished it off a burst of ink from their Splattershots. The blue light faded from the Guardian as it became an empty husk.

"Yeah! That's what you get for messing with the NSS," Nept cheered. Daisy walked back to where she had hidden the picnic basket and picked it up. Leaf rejoined the rest of the group.

"That could have gone a lot better," Ace said, forming her left hand into a fist. Her hair turned back to its usual orange color.

"I think we all did great," Leaf said. "Is everyone still up for climbing that tower? I think it might be safer up there."

"Of course," Daisy said. Leaf pulled out the red and white sphere from earlier and it sent out a red beam of light to Fushi that absorbed the Pokemon.

* * *

It took some time but when the group ascended to the top of the tower they all agreed the view was worth it. They could see a castle far off in the distance, wide plains of grass, and even a distant volcano. Nept stayed towards the center of the tower and away from the edges. Leaf sent out Fushi and her two other Pokemon, a small turtle like Pokemon nicknamed Zenigame and a dragon like Pokemon nicknamed Lizardon. Daisy handed out the food from the picnic basket. "I'm pretty sure I've heard Link and Zelda talk about those things before," Ace said.

"So that's why you knew what they were called," Nept commented.

"We should tell them about our fight with it then, we might have missed a weak point," Leaf said.

"Something about the way it showed up felt weird, but I can't place my finger on it. Oh well, we can worry about it later. Those Guardians aren't that tough," Daisy said. The conversation shifted to lighter topics as the newest Smashers enjoyed their picnic. When the meal was over Leaf reactivated the teleporter and they vanished in a flash of light, returning to Smash Mansion.


	5. Ridley: Confirmation

All of the Smashers were gathered in the performance room. The air was tense since Master Hand had gathered them for the reveal of the next Smasher with a reminder of the rules against fighting. That only happened if Master Hand thought there was a risk of a fight breaking out. Those who had been around for the longest still remembered the destructive battle that had happened when Ganondorf made his debut and Link rushed the stage. Samus was retelling the story to the newest Smashers when Master Hand teleported onto the stage, the sound of the newcomer being teleported in from behind the curtain could also be heard.

"Attention everyone, I would like to introduce all of you to our newest Smasher," Master Hand said. For a floating disembodied hand his body language was easy to read after a while. No motion in the thumb meant he was expecting outrage over his choice. "From the same world as Samus Aran-" every Smasher moved away from the bounty hunter "-we have the powerful Space Pirate, Ridley."

From behind the curtain a large dragon like creature with dark purple skin walked onto the stage. Ridley had bent down to fit into the mansion better but was still taller than the other Smashers. He proved that it did nothing to inhibit his movement by sidestepping a fully charged power shot from his nemesis.

"Ridley?! You made a mistake Master Hand!" Samus leapt at Ridley and he charged to meet her. Arm cannon and claw clashed at the edge of the stage. Samus sent Ridley up in the air with a powerful uppercut. Ridley spread his wings and flew around just below the ceiling, dodging the power shots and missiles while retaliating with fireballs. The other Smashers either watched the fight, left the room, or in the case of Ace pulled out their phone to record the battle. Falco passed a bag of popcorn to Bowser Junior.

"Samus calm down-" Master Hand was shot into the wall with a flurry of Super Missiles before he could finish speaking. He was knocked out cold against the wall, which had also happened when he tried to stop Link from attacking Ganondorf. Pikachu utilized Quick Attack to jump onto the stage. He grabbed Samus's leg, when she looked down he shook his head and tapped her leg. That was enough to make Samus stop firing.

"What's wrong, out of ammo or did you just remember that you're not really Chozo?" Ridley mockingly asked. Instantly Samus's rage returned and the barrage of projectiles resumed with even greater strength. Which resulted in Ridley getting hit by some of them. Pikachu exchanged a look with Mewtwo before firing a blast of electricity at Ridley that knocked him into the wall and sent him slowly falling down against it. At the same time Mewtwo teleported in front of Samus and stunned her with Disable before knocking her out with his tail.

"I'll be in the clinic. You guys can handle dragging the bastard in," Doctor Mario said.

"And I'll take Samus back to her room for rest. Do you want a guard in the event Samus tries to hunt Ridley down?" Mewtwo asked.

"I can handle her," Doctor Mario answered. The other Mario sighed as yet another part of the disaster that was Ganondorf's first day as a Smasher repeated itself. Ganondorf grabbed Ridley's legs while Bowser grabbed his shoulders and they carried him out of the room.

* * *

Ridley was used to waking up somewhere unusual after fighting Samus. This time the bed was large enough to hold Ridley's full wingspan and the ceiling was white, with lights so bright his eyes hurt. "Finally up. Took you long enough for all the trouble you just caused," Doctor Mario said as he filled out some paperwork on a clipboard. Ridley tried to move but there were restraints on all of his limbs, even his tail. And thanks to a gag over his mouth he couldn't demand his release either. It didn't stop him from trying and turning his head to glare at the doctor. "Did you really think I was letting you wake up and breathe fire on me? Dumbass."

Doctor Mario walked over and removed the gag. "How dare you-" Ridley got hit with the clipboard for his remark.

"Those restraints come off when I feel like it. Don't make that after your death," Doctor Mario threatened. Ridley was too outraged to say anything kind and just barely restrained himself from saying anything at all. Even the aftermath of the K-2L raid hadn't been as humiliating as his current situation, at the mercy of a human doctor with a sadistic look on their face. Still there had to be a way out. "Samus already told us everything so don't play the victim, we all saw you provoke her. You're not going to have any fights to the death here, understand? Any tricks with wording or word play and I'm surgically removing your wings."

"Yes," Ridley said, swallowing his pride. Doctor Mario tapped his foot expectantly. "Yes I won't fight anyone to the death as long as I'm in this realm and will follow all the rules." For Ridley it hurt on an almost physical level to say that to an inferior life form. The restraints were removed and he got out of the bed as quickly as he could.

"I'll lead you to your room," Doctor Mario said. He lead the way out of his office, after walking to and ascending a flight of stairs Ridley's room was just a short walk down the hallway. The room had extremely dim lighting and covers over the windows, the one form of 'decoration' was a large touch screen on the right wall. Ridley shut the door and flew up towards the top of the room, digging his talons into the ceiling so he could hang from it. He didn't feel a need to add anything else to the room. "You're welcome. Ungrateful bastard," Doctor Mario said from the other side of the door. Ridley carefully listened to the sounds of the doctor's footsteps to confirm that he was being left alone.

Now that Ridley was in a better position he could make a plan. He had only agreed to be a Smasher to get stronger and finally kill Samus to secure the victory of the Space Pirates. Samus also being a Smasher threw a wrench into every plan Ridley had. After some thinking Ridley opened himself up to the possibility that some of the other species present could be among the elite that deserved to rule their universe. He dropped down to the floor feet first and raised a claw to turn on the touch screen, pulling up the roster and the profile it gave for each Smasher.

Humans and any human like species such as the Hylians and Inklings were immediately crossed off of the list, alongside the mutt and duck. After reading through the data on them he decided that the Manakete could at least be tolerated. Robots could be useful but only as tools, Mega Man would be another obstacle but R.O.B could be a decent weapon. The Pokemon varied, that yellow rat was obviously inferior but some of the others held promise. However it appeared that most of them had a misplaced loyalty to the clearly inferior humans, still Mewtwo and Greninja could possibly be recruited even if the loyalties of the two Charizard were a vast disappointment. The Lylat system seemed to be inhabited entirely by inferior beings, as did the world of that Sonic creature.

The Koopa would require more investigating, those two apes and the Yoshi were an instant no. Judging from appearances alone he would have dismissed the two puffballs, but reading up on their accomplishments made him deduce the small appearance was merely another weapon in their vast arsenal. The one called Kirby was almost like a Metroid with its use of other life forms' energy.

A knock on the door interrupted Ridley's plotting. He looked through the peephole, Bowser Junior was on the other side. He didn't seem to have any weapons on him so Ridley opened the door. "What do you want?" Ridley asked.

"I just wanted to say that I think you're really cool. Can I come in?" Junior asked. Ridley thought of all the different ways he could have just killed Junior if he wasn't bound by the rules of the mansion. Of course last time he had been in a position like that the end result was Samus Aran becoming a menace to the Space Pirates.

"You can enter," Ridley said. He stepped back and Junior walked into the dimly lit room closing the door behind him. Ridley found the naivety pitiful, anywhere else closing that door would have been a fatal mistake. Regardless Junior could offer valuable insight into how Smash Mansion operated despite his lack of overall intelligence. It hadn't been difficult to realize that Master Hand wasn't the true leader, he handled recruitment and made the rules but the Smashers all seemed to answer to someone else. However Ridley questioned if someone as naïve as Junior would know who that was.

It looked like Junior wanted to say something from how he kept on mumbling and stopping himself right as he started to talk. Whatever information it was Ridley figured it was worth getting out of him. Except he wasn't sure how to make people tell him things when torture wasn't an option. "So after that rough introduction to everyone I could use some friends. Can I meet some of yours?" Ridley asked.

"Oh yeah, follow me," Junior threw open the door and ran out. Ridley hurried behind him, slamming the door shut on his way out. Dealing with Junior was definitely going to be a headache. When they got to the stairs Ridley opted to jump down to the second floor instead of walking. Junior cheered while Ridley held back the urge to yell at him to be quiet. Their destination was the first door on the right, which turned out to lead into the library.

Despite all the noise cooperating with Junior had already paid off. The library had tall and wide shelves filled with books, plus an assortment of chairs and tables with a few computers. Just from glancing at the different titles Ridley could tell it contained books from all of the different worlds. He would be making good use of the information they contained. Junior scampered over to Corrin, who was sitting in one of the chairs reading a book. Ridley had been hoping Junior would lead him to someone else on his list.

Corrin put the book down and stood up as Ridley walked over to him. "This is Corrin, he's a prince like me and he can turn into a dragon and he has a cool chainsaw sword," Junior introduced.

"Hello," Corrin said. "Have you recovered from that fight with Samus?"

"She's done worse," Ridley said. Corrin was clearly uncomfortable and didn't seem confident in his own words. Usually Ridley saw that kind of behavior when a subordinate had failed him. He had no idea why Corrin was behaving that way. Ridley had to remind himself that both Junior and Corrin must have been powerful enough to make up for their mental weakness to become Smashers. "What are you the prince of, Corrin?" Ridley asked. For some reason the profile on him had lacked that information.

"That's actually kind of a complicated question, it's a long story," Corrin responded. After a few seconds spent glancing at the chainsaw sword Junior had mentioned Corrin spoke. "Sorry, I should tell the story anyway. It's the polite thing to do. My twin sister and I were born in the kingdom of Hoshido but were kidnapped as infants and raised by the noble family of Nohr. Of course neither of us knew about that until recently when we ended up meeting my birth family. Things escalated and both of us decided the best thing to do was go here."

"In other words you were hostages," Ridley said.

"No," Corrin yelled. He looked embarrassed and made sure to lower his tone. "Father- the King of Nohr I mean, he and my Nohrian siblings treated us well. I suspect he recently used us for something horrible but I still trust my siblings. I'm not sure I could break their hearts by opposing Nohr. However when I finally met my Hoshidan family they were so overjoyed to have finally found me that I can't tolerate the thought of taking arms against them either. Kamui, my twin, she feels the same way. So we refused to fight and came here instead," Corrin said.

"Sounds like you're just using this place to run from your problems," Ridley said. Actually saying that was clearly a mistake but it was what Ridley thought and he wasn't used to diplomacy. Usually he could just force people to do what he wanted. Corrin put his hands together.

"That was true at first but we've started working on a plan. I can't say anything else about it," Corrin said. "Anyway what brought you here? You must have had your own reason for signing up."

"I joined to be with my dad," Junior added. He had spent most of the conversation tapping his foot in boredom.

"I joined to strengthen myself and the Space Pirates. It's hard to conquer the universe when you keep losing to the same bounty hunter. At this point I may as well just use my forces as snacks for all their worth," Ridley said with a chuckle. Corrin nervously laughed with him. Ridley crossed jokes off of his mental list of ways to talk with potential allies. "Perhaps we could help each other, I force your bickering relatives to get along at gun point and you help me fight my enemies." Ridley slashed the air with his right claw.

"You can't just force people to get along, and I'd like to know who I'd be fighting before accepting a deal like that. I do appreciate the offer, I'll need all the help I can get," Corrin said. Officially it was against the rules to meddle with the other worlds, Master Hand been rather clear about that. Fortunately Corrin's response made it clear that the rule was more of a suggestion. Mowing down humans from a world with primitive technology would be an easy low risk high reward mission.

"Can I help too?" Junior asked.

"If your father lets you I'd be honored to have you as an ally," Corrin said.

"Oh, speaking of allies my dad said he wants to work with you mister Ridley," Junior said. He pulled a document out from under his shell and put it on the table. The terms were simple: they would defend each other from invasion and trade resources. Although Ridley loathed to admit it the Space Pirates had always failed to repel anyone who actually made it into one of their home planets. He would have preferred assistance with invasions but wondered if it was worth pushing for.

"Tell him to meet me in my room at twenty hundred hours," Ridley said. "I like this but there are other leaders of the Space Pirates and beating them into agreeing with me is just boring at this point." Corrin gave a nervous laugh assuming it was a joke, it wasn't. There was an awkward silence between them. Junior put the document back in his shell, Ridley wondered what else was in there. That was when he remembered a certain vital piece of information he lacked. "Master Hand's just a figure hand, who's the real leader here? The one you actually listen to."

"Who we actually listen to?" Corrin muttered to himself. His face lit up like he had made an important break through. "Peach, she organizes almost everything in this mansion. She's even been able to organize stuff with other worlds, like a family visit day. If you want something done you should go to her first."

"I'll make contact with her soon then," Ridley said.

"I think she should be out by the lake. Anyway I have to go see Kamui now, something you said just gave me an idea," Corrin said. He picked up his book from the table and left the library. Junior ran off to find his father and waved goodbye as he hurried to the door.

Now that he was by himself Ridley went over his list of likely allies again: the ones he still needed to contact were Kirby, Meta Knight, Mewtwo, Greninja, and now Peach. He hated the idea of interacting with a human in a way that didn't involve killing them but if Peach was the leader of the Smashers than he had to speak with her at some point.

Ridley made his way down to the first floor and walked to the backdoor. He crossed paths with some of the other Smashers but ignored any and all attempts to start a conversation. When he got outside he extended his wings and ascended up into the sky. There wasn't much to obstruct Ridley's vision from the air, he could see a forest but thankfully it was far away from the mansion. The nearby town was small and probably wasn't worth raiding even if he was allowed to. He flew towards the lake and could make out Peach standing near it, he slowly descended to the ground so he wouldn't be seen as a threat.

"Hello Ridley I don't think we've properly met yet, my name's Peach," she said. "Here to enjoy the view?" Peach's voice had such a soft quality to it Ridley wondered if she was really the boss. The lake was clear and the sunlight made it shine but Ridley didn't have an eye for beauty and thus had no appreciation of the sight. So he didn't look long enough to realize who was under the water. He did take notice of several creatures that he assumed were Pokemon. He considered challenging Peach to forcibly take her authority, he was sure he could win.

"Just felt that I should introduce myself to the true leader of Smash Mansion," Ridley said. Peach frowned.

"That's one way of putting it I suppose. You're here because you want something, right? Like recruits for the Space Pirates," Peach said. Her voice had suddenly gained a sharper edge, which made it clear she already knew she was right. Ridley's mind raced to figure out why she was so confident in that. She must have had something or someone in the library that reported to her.

"Spying on me already I see," Ridley said. He stood straight up and looked down at Peach, opening his mouth to show off his sharp fangs. Peach's expression didn't change at all.

"Oh I used something else to learn about your plans, it won't be used in the future hopefully. Anyway since you're so concerned with how things are run you should know that you can consider Mewtwo my right hand man, he may keep to himself but he cares deeply about everyone's safety," Peach said. Was she implying Mewtwo had done something? The file on him did state that he had mind reading powers but was only permitted to use them when needed. Like when a new Smasher was considered a possible threat and had taken part in a fight within the mansion. So Mewtwo using his mind reading powers on Ridley made sense.

"If I wanted to I could just kill you here," Ridley said. Before he could react something had knocked him back. As he landed on the ground a turnip slammed into his face with intense force. Peach put her foot on top of Ridley's chest and pushed down. Despite her appearance it had enough force to keep him down. Greninja was standing right next to her holding a shuriken made out of water between his hands, a shuriken that was also aimed at Ridley's neck. It only took a few seconds for Ridley to realize that Greninja had been hiding in the lake the whole time. The whole thing had been a trap.

"I don't want to be enemies. As long as you keep the fighting outside the mansion you can use your position here to help the Space Pirates. Which is also why Fox has a contract lined up with the Galactic Federation, it's only fair you both get help from other worlds. I don't like being mean so I'll forgive you this time," Peach said. She was smiling like they were having a meaningless conversation.

"I understand," Ridley said. Peach and Greninja stepped off of him. Ridley pulled himself up from the ground and flapped his wings to ascend into the air. Then he flew back to Smash Mansion in retreat. He was never going to forgive those two.

* * *

After taking the time to explore Smash Mansion Ridley returned to his room. The encounter with Peach weighed on his mind so heavily he hadn't bothered looking for the other possible allies. He had been outmatched by Peach completely. It was clear he had to use entirely new tactics if he wanted to see any long term success as a Smasher. So he had asked some of the other Smashers about how Peach had become the head of Smash Mansion.

None of the answers he got were what he had expected. Her rise to power had been built on doing favors for others and earning their trust. She was the leader because she had been unofficially elected to the position. None of the people he asked had talked about her cruel side. It baffled him how someone could be considered a leader without any threats of death hanging over their followers.

In other words Smash Mansion operated in a way that was nothing like what Ridley was used to. Previously he had no need of trust when fear was so easily acquired. Now that he was amongst people who could all supposedly beat him in a fight that was no longer an option. Even if the thought of doing something for someone else for no stated reward made him want to throw up it seemed to be how alliances were formed in Smash Mansion. No not alliances they all talked about friendships, a word that brought back uncomfortable memories of the little girl on K-2L.

After much thought and internal debate Ridley had settled on a new plan: spend time with Junior. It sounded hopelessly stupid yet it matched the methods Peach had used to gain her authority. To be powerful in Smash Mansion he needed to have people who would willingly do things for him, and Junior had called him 'cool' so that implied some measure of respect. Ridley would help him when he needed help and hope that Junior would do the same for him. That was how Smash Mansion worked so he would play along and when he returned to his world he planned on returning to the methods that worked there.

There was a knock on the door. Bowser had arrived to negotiate their alliance. Ridley reminded himself of the guidelines he had made up for appearing nice as he opened the door. Now that he understood the rules of Smash he was going to succeed even if it meant behaving in an entirely new way. So he shook Bowser's hand and let him into the room. With any luck the alliance would also become the start of a new friendship.


	6. Chrom: Confirmation

Chrom had been to Smash Mansion before but not as a fighter. Somehow that was enough for the entire place to feel different, like it was suddenly a battlefield where weakness couldn't be shown. As he followed behind Roy of Pherae to the lounge he tightened his grip on the sheathed Falchion. Chrom stood a small distance away from the door as Roy entered the lounge. Roy had asked Marth, Lucina, Robin, and Reflet to gather there shortly before Chrom arrived at the mansion. "Thanks for coming here on short notice. One of the newcomers just arrived and wants to see you," Roy said. On cue Chrom walked into the room.

"Father?" Chrom grinned as Lucina, Robin, and Reflet all failed to hide their shock. Robin had even dropped his book. Marth smiled from his spot near the back of the room.

"Roy's been helping me train over the past year. I don't think I would have been accepted if I didn't have his help," Chrom explained.

"Even if you use my style it was your own skill that brought you here," Roy said. "I wanted to tell you guys that I was training Chrom but he told me not to so it could be a surprise." Robin reached down to pick up his book.

"Then when Master Hand approved my entry I wanted to tell you but then Roy insisted on all of this set up," Chrom said. Roy rubbed the back of his head.

"Regardless it's good to have you here as a fellow Smasher Chrom," Robin said.

"Since we both use Falchion I look forward to having sparring matches with you," Marth said. He walked over to Chrom and shook his hand.

"I would be honored to," Chrom said. It still felt strange talking directly to his ancestor but Lucina said she had gotten used to it after a while. Besides they had met before during Chrom's visits to Smash Mansion to see Lucina. That first meeting had been extremely awkward and Chrom did his best not to think about it.

"Now please excuse me but I need to go talk to Link about something," Marth said. He walked out of the lounge, Roy followed him out. Reflet leaned over to Lucina.

"Hey Lucina, are you going to tell him about your-"

"Don't you dare!" Lucina shouted. Chrom could tell from the way Reflet had been grinning that she was up to some mischief he shouldn't ask about. "Sorry about that. Let's go father, I can introduce you to some of the other Smashers."

"While you do that Reflet and I should go work on improving our technique. Master Hand needs people to test some new training area he has set up anyway," Robin said.

"I'll see you around then," Chrom said. Lucina stood up and walked out of the room with him.

"Let's go to the garden, one of the other newcomers should be there," Lucina suggested. Chrom gave his approval and Lucina led the way to the garden. Despite all of his trips to Smash Mansion he still felt like he was relying on Lucina to know where they were going. He was bad at visualizing things in his mind, which was why having a tactician like Robin had been such a godsend. To memorize the layout he'd have to walk around by himself and brute force it.

The garden was large and filled with a variety of plants. The size and vision blocking hedges made it hard to judge how many people were in it but there were two right by the entrance. One of them he recognized as Olimar, the other was a woman in an orange dress he didn't recognize. Chrom and Lucina walked over to them. "Father this is Daisy, the princess of Sarasaland and one of my friends. Daisy this is my father, the Exalt of Ylisse and the newest Smasher," Lucina introduced.

"Please just call me Chrom."

"Nice to meet you Chrom," Daisy said.

"I see you've been promoted, Lucina's been hoping for that for a while now," Olimar said. "I wish I got that kind of promotion at my job," he half muttered. Lucina had an embarrassed look on her face. The door into the mansion opened as two red Pikmin carried a flower vase down the steps, a flying Pikmin following behind them. Daisy picked up the flower vase and thanked the Pikmin.

"I've seen them before while aiding Robin in battle but what exactly are those Pikmin?" Chrom asked.

"They're an odd type of creature that also qualify as plants. I'm not sure why they started helping me but if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here," Olimar said.

"Well they're my favorite part of this garden so I'm glad both of you are here," Daisy said. She kneeled down and pulled up a flower to put into the vase. The Pikmin wandered off further into the garden. "Anyway after what happened with Ridley it's nice to have a newcomer people are actually happy to have around," Daisy said. That was an unfamiliar name to Chrom.

"What happened with this Ridley?" Chrom asked.

"Long story short the archenemy of one of the original Smashers just became a Smasher and neither of them can stand the other's presence," Olimar explained.

"I was able to have a conversation with Samus but I could tell that she was still seething with rage. With the kind of history they have I can't blame her," Lucina said. Chrom thought back to some of the more unusual recruits he had gathered for the Shepherds. Sometimes he had to remind himself why he had even recruited that dastard Gangrel. Of course the answer hadn't changed since he had made that choice, because after everything that happened Gangrel had gone from a threat to a pathetic joke. He had a feeling Ridley hadn't gone through anything like that.

Chrom felt a vibration in his pocket as a chime went off from some item Daisy had on her. He reached into his pocket to grab the communication device Master Hand had given him, something called a phone. Lucina, Olimar, and Daisy all took out theirs at the same time. There was already text on the screen reading _Alert: Samus needs help in teleporter room._ "Come on," Chrom said as he took off back into the mansion. The others followed behind him, Daisy put down the vase and quickly typed something out on her phone as she ran to catch up.

They were the first to arrive at the scene. Samus was collapsed on the floor in front of the door to the teleporter room, a small yellow creature that had a great resemblance to Pikachu was standing over Samus. There was no movement from Samus. "Pichu what happened?" Lucina asked. Pichu gestured for Lucina's phone, when he got it he typed 'fell unconscious' on the screen and handed it back. Chrom and Lucina pulled Samus up and supported her between them. Pichu climbed up Chrom and stood on his shoulder while taking hold of Samus. Pichu gave off a few sparks of electricity but they were so weak they only tingled Chrom.

"Where should we take her?" Chrom asked.

"Doctor Mario has a clinic, he's already waiting for us," Daisy said. She started walking in the direction of the clinic as the others followed. Chrom was about to ask how she knew that Doctor Mario was in his clinic but then he remembered what Lucina had told him about the technology at Smash Mansion. Those devices they handed out let any Smasher communicate with each other instantly so she probably just used hers. Chrom wondered how differently things would have gone in his world if they had that kind of technology, he could already think of one time it would have saved lives.

When they reached the clinic Pichu jumped off of Chrom's shoulder as he and Lucina laid Samus down in one of the beds. Doctor Mario shooed Chrom and Lucina away before they had a chance to give Samus space of their own accord. After some examination Doctor Mario sighed. "She hasn't slept at all since that purple bastard showed up, this is just a case of someone who thinks they're too good for sleep learning otherwise the hard way. With some rest she'll be back to her usual self," Doctor Mario said.

"That's good to hear," Chrom said. "Are you sure she wasn't attacked?"

"I'm sure she was raiding the Space Pirates again but I doubt she left any survivors for you to worry about. Ever since Ridley joined she's been in and out of my office killing as many of them as she can."

"And you didn't stop her because…" Daisy said accusingly.

"You try negotiating with someone who has an arm cannon. Not my fault if she doesn't want to listen to someone with an MD," Doctor Mario said.

"It doesn't sound like we can do anything more for her. We should let her rest," Olimar said. Chrom didn't want to agree but he had no choice so he left the clinic with the others. Even if he barely knew Samus being powerless always infuriated him. No matter how minor they were moments like that brought back memories of Emmeryn's sacrifice. He could almost feel the sand under his boots as he clenched his fist.

"I'm off to the tennis court. I need to let off some steam after this," Daisy said. She walked away. Olimar choose to return to the garden and said goodbye. Pichu went with Olimar.

"I'm not sure what we should do next," Lucina admitted. She glanced at the door to the clinic with concern written all over her face. "You've already seen most of this mansion from your visits."

"Then let's go somewhere else. I've always wanted to see what these other worlds look like," Chrom said. Lucina nodded and they walked back to the teleporter room. When they got into the room Lucina selected a destination on the console and then joined her father on the platform.

* * *

Teleportation spells had always made Chrom feel a little dizzy but the new sight that greeted him was far more disorientating. They were in a city filled with massive buildings, some so tall they looked like they were trying to pierce the sky itself. Even the castle in Ylisstol wasn't that high, Chrom wasn't sure if his world even had the technology to reach that height. Most of the city had a floor of cement but he and Lucina were standing in a small park on familiar grass and dirt.

"Where are we?" Chrom asked.

"New Donk City, this is somewhere in Mario's world. Peach was telling me about it the other day. She said they had some great shops here," Lucina said. They waited for the traffic signal before crossing the road and walking down Dixie Street. It was only a short walk to the store Lucina had in mind, Crazy Caps.

"Wait, we should convert our money the local currency first," Chrom said.

"The teleporter should have already converted our money," Lucina explained. Chrom pulled out his wallet, it was now filled with golden coins that had a rectangular indent in the center. He briefly questioned how that had happened before remembering that he had already decided the odd things about Smash Mansion were better off unquestioned. Lucina walked into the store and Chrom followed after her.

Despite what the name implied Chrom could quickly make out many articles of clothing for sale that weren't even headwear let alone caps. He never had much of an eye for fashion so he just stood by as Lucina looked over the different clothing for sale. Lucina found some combination she liked and went to the dressing room in back. Chrom was filled with dread.

Lucina walked out of the dressing room wearing a clown suit paired with the same strange double hat the employees of the store were wearing. It felt like an attack on Chrom's eyes and dignity. He was thankful for the Hero King's absence. "How do I look?"

"Er, you look… gods no I can't do it. Lucina change into something else please. You're embarrassing me and it should be the other way around," Chrom pleaded. Lucina gave a disappointed sigh and went to change into something that wasn't a mockery of their entire bloodline. This time she came out wearing a black suit and matching hat. "That's much better."

"You should try something on too," Lucina suggested. Chrom picked up a black suit in his size and walked into the dressing room, he walked out looking less like a king and more like a CEO. Lucina grabbed a hat identical to the one she was wearing and put it on his head to complete the look. "There, now we match."

"This is more comfortable than I thought it would be," Chrom admitted. At that moment Reflet and Dark Pit walked into the store. The latter didn't look like he came willingly and Reflet had an evil smile on her face. It was what Chrom had dubbed her 'trickster mode.'

"Oh what a surprise to run into you guys here. That's a good look for you two," Reflet complimented. She was clearly up to something but the fact that she didn't see Lucina in the clown suit meant she had already lost. "I was just dragging Dark Pit here so he can dress up nice if Lucina wants to go on _another_ date with him."

"What!" Chrom already had Falchion unsheathed and pointed at Dark Pit. They were going to have a long talk.

"It wasn't a real date Reflet tricked us into it!" Lucina and Dark Pit shouted at the same time. Chrom pointed the Falchion at Reflet instead.

"Oh, yeah, you guys can just mention that part. I forgot to plan around that," Reflet said. She took a nervous step back towards the store exit.

"Reflet, what did I tell you not to do?" Chrom asked.

"Play matchmaker with Lucina."

"What did they just testify to?"

"Well you see, sometimes you just get bored and you know what they say about old habits so… ah screw it you'll never catch me!" Reflet shouted as she ran out of the store and into the city with Chrom hot on her trail. He pushed through the door so fiercely it broke and the anti-theft alarm went off. Dark Pit broke out into laughter.

"I'll pay for it," Lucina said to the cashier. The cashier seemed extremely eager to get the purchase over with.

"What's with the smile?" Dark Pit asked Lucina.

"I'm just glad I can have moments like this with father. There wasn't any time for things like this in the future I came from. Now you're coming with me so we can stop my father and Reflet from accidentally destroying this city," Lucina said. Before Dark Pit could protest or groan in annoyance Lucina was already dragging him with her out of the store.


	7. King K Rool: Confirmation

King K Rool threw open the door to Smash Manor so hard it nearly broke off the hinge. He had been trying to actually break it so K Rool marched in like that had happened for his nonexistent audience. "Bah, some welcome you have for a king," K. Rool said in response to the lack of applause. He crossed his arms and tapped the ground with his foot, a king like him wasn't going to carry his own suitcase to his room. Donkey Kong revealed himself on the wall above the door with a shout and leapt onto K Rool's back. He threw Donkey Kong off and pulled out his blunderbuss. With a blue flash someone was standing between the two rivals before the fight could properly start.

"No fighting in the mansion guys. We don't need yet another repeat of the Ganondorf incident," Fox said. He held his reflector towards Donkey Kong with one hand and the other pointed his blaster at K Rool. With a glare and an 'I'm watching you' gesture Donkey Kong walked away and left them on their own. "Phew, that was close. Sorry about that whole mess."

"You better be. Now bring me to my room, carry the suitcase too." Fox sighed and led the way. Once they arrived at the door to his room K. Rool swiped his suitcase, shoved Fox out of the way, and barged in.

"You're welcome," Fox sarcastically remarked from the other side of the now closed door before the sound of his footsteps faded in the distance. K. Rool heard it but didn't care. What he did care about was unpacking and making sure none of his many trophies had lost their shine. Unfortunately some of the trophies had gotten slightly dull so K. Rool plotted how he would punish the Kremlings who packed for him. He polished the trophies back into a shiny state and displayed them proudly on the window sill. When that was done and the less important items had been unpacked K. Rool determined that it was time for him to eat, and he didn't know where the kitchen was but that detail was insignificant. Fox had been supposed to show him around but apparently he had decided his time was better spent elsewhere, K. Rool would make sure to remember that.

After some investigation into the layout of Smash Mansion that most certainly didn't also involve being lost K. Rool arrived at the dining hall. The other Smashers were eating so K. Rool placed himself at one of the tables, coincidentally the other newcomers were all seated there. He sat down next to Chrom, who was eating a banana. K. Rool tried to swipe some of the food on Chrom's plate but Chrom blocked it with his free hand. "There's a plate right over there you know," Chrom said. K. Rool glared and added Chrom to his mental list of enemies. He locked eyes with Daisy while serving himself food.

"Ugh, first Ridley and now you. I thought the Hands had standards," Daisy complained. The few times they had met while playing Baseball had gone rather poorly.

"You should have questioned that when he invited you," K. Rool fired back.

"Oh you want to go," Daisy said. She stood up and rolled up her sleeves. Leaf pulled her back down.

"Please can we have some peace in the dining hall?" Leaf asked. "Anyway nice to meet you, my name is Leaf." She went on to introduce the other newcomers, though K. Rool was barely paying attention. He was more focused on shoving food into his mouth.

"You pass me those chips," K. Rool demanded from Chrom, whose free hand went towards Falchion's sheath.

"Not if you're going to be this rude."

"I'm a king you pathetic human, show some respect," K. Rool said.

"And I'm an exalt. You're getting all the respect you've earned so far," Chrom said. Daisy and Chrom fistbumped. K. Rool had to admit that Chrom clearly wasn't a pushover and he could respect that, but he also didn't like being disobeyed. He began plotting revenge while serving himself all of the remaining chips. The other newcomers went back to their conversation and some tried to pretend K. Rool wasn't there. Ridley was giving him a curious look that got met with a fierce glare.

* * *

After having his fill K. Rool put the dining hall behind him and made his way to the hangar. Captain Falcon was lying under the Blue Falcon performing maintenance on it while talking to Red, who was sitting on a crate next to the Blue Machine. Red had a notepad that he was writing notes in. K. Rool walked up to the Blue Falcon. "What's this?"

"My racing machine. Don't touch without asking," Captain Falcon said. He grabbed a wrench from a pile of tools next to the Blue Falcon on the floor. "Any mechanical experience?"

"Hah 'any?' I built my own weapons and an entire robot," K. Rool boasted.

"Cool. Could you flip open the hood and make sure everything looks right? Sometimes things get a little displaced with how intense races get in my world, just make sure everything is connected," Captain Falcon said. He ducked back under the machine. K. Rool pulled open the hood of the Blue Falcon. Some pipes looked a little dislodged so K. Rool pulled them back together. It took a surprising amount of effort since those pipes clearly hadn't been intended to move but his brute force prevailed. He committed the layout to memory in case he felt like building one of his own.

"So why's that brat here if he can't do anything?" K. Rool asked. A red flash of light came out from Red's pocket and formed into Charizard. Charizard narrowed his eyes and bared his fangs.

"Calm down Charizard," Red said. He pushed himself off of the crate and put his hand on Charizard's neck. "I want to know all about the different kinds of creatures in other people's worlds so I was asking Captain Falcon about the aliens in his. If it's a problem I can just come back later."

"Don't mind him kid, he's just being a dick. Anyway K. Rool, that's your name right, how does the hood look?" Captain Falcon asked. It was hard for K. Rool to tell what exactly he was doing.

"I put the pipe back in place. How do you even dislodge something like this?" K. Rool asked.

"Remember what I said about the races in my world, they're brutal. These come from nearly being driven off the track at the highest speeds people can just barely handle. It's dangerous as hell and they only let you in after all sorts of tests to prove you won't die right away. Actually they're on hold right now due to protests about it," Captain Falcon said.

"Protests? What for?" Red asked. He flipped to a new page on his notebook.

"The amount of danger in them. It's just nonsense being strewn up by people who don't know anything about F-Zero regulations but it was enough to get them delayed indefinitely. Peach invited me to some race in her world but they're far less intense than what I'm used to and I don't want to accidentally bring F-Zero level intensity to people who never signed up for it," Captain Falcon explained. Throughout the whole explanation his eyes remained fixed on the Blue Falcon. He had switched to some tool that K. Rool had never seen before, it looked like a small paint roller with no actual paint on it.

"That's lame," K. Rool said as he eyed Captain Falcon's other tools. Those F-Zero races sounded perfect for K. Rool. If he could get a look at the rest of the Blue Falcon's internal workings he could probably build his own counterpart to it. Getting a complete look right away would give himself away and he wanted to keep his projects secret so he would have to do so another time when nobody else was around. He noticed Red looking at him intently. "What are you looking at?" Charizard raised one of his claws as a reminder of his presence.

"Ah sorry. There's nobody of your species in my world so I was just curious and writing down some basic observations. There are a bunch of different Pokemon types so I'm always wondering what people would fit under. If you can swim you'd probably be a water type, maybe part steel with your engineering skills," Red said. Despite what some would assume K. Rool did respect the rules against fighting in the mansion, so he held back his comment about Red being a weirdo since Charizard was right there. K. Rool didn't like the way Charizard was looking at him in general, it just screamed 'I'm a carnivore with a short temper and big appetite.'

"Well as you can see I'm vastly superior to those monkey brained Kongs," K. Rool said. Red shifted back uncomfortably and wrote something in his notepad. "What are you writing about me anyway?"

"Oh uh, you can see it if you want," Red said. He held out his notepad.

"I didn't ask to see it," K. Rool said. He grabbed Red's notepad and read through the notes on him. They were all basic one to three word observations about his appearance like 'bipedal' or 'has scales.' The longest note read 'different number of toes and fingers - three toes four fingers.' K. Rool looked down at his hands and feet, he had never thought about the number of fingers and toes he had. He looked at Red's five fingered hand for comparison then curled up and uncurled his fingers.

"Are you okay?" Red asked.

"Fine," K. Rool shouted as he shoved the notepad back into Red's hands. Red rubbed his ears. K. Rool walked away without even bothering to say farewell, though Red and Captain Falcon did when they saw him leaving.

According to the explanation of Smash Mansion's features that K. Rool had got with his invitation there was a boxing ring somewhere. It took a few accidental trips to other facilities like the library or lounge to find it. There was an annoying ticking noise that seemed to follow him but he decided it was nothing. More importantly he was definitely getting payback on Fox the next time they met. When K. Rool finally found the boxing ring he triumphantly marched into the room that housed it. Little Mac was practicing his punches on a sandbag in the ring. He stopped and turned to face K. Rool. "Hey you're the newcomer right? Are you a boxer too?"

"You should know who I am already, I am King Krusha K. Rool the best boxer of the Kremling Krew," K. Rool bragged. Of course he was the best boxer by virtue of actually beating him being a violation of the rules punishable by death, but to K. Rool that was a very insignificant detail. The win-loss ratio was all that really mattered.

"Cool. Want to go a few rounds Krusha?" Little Mac asked. K. Rool responded by grabbing boxing gloves off of the wall and jumping into the ring. While he put the gloves on Little Mac picked up the sandbag and threw it out of the ring. K. Rool didn't think much of Little Mac as an opponent but going all out on weaklings was always fun.

With a shout K. Rool threw the first punch. Little Mac ducked. He blocked the second and threw the third punch of the match. K. Rool blocked it with a punch of his own and used his other fist to land a hit on Little Mac. Little Mac stumbled back but was still able to sidestep the follow up punch from K. Rool.

After that neither of them were able to land a hit. Little Mac would throw out punches that would get blocked but he had learned his lesson and always dodged the counterattack. Meanwhile all of K. Rool's attacks met with either another boxing glove or empty space. K. Rool's patience was running thin. He stepped forward and threw out a right hook. Little Mac ducked under it and with a shout of 'Star Punch' landed a direct hit on K. Rool.

Despite not being that hurt K. Rool fell to the ground like it had been a severe blow, throwing in a fake groan of pain for extra measure. He never liked how weak the tactic made him look but the potential victory was always worth it. Little Mac took the chance to catch his breath while K. Rool was on the ground. Seizing the new opening K. Rool erupted from the ground and struck Little Mac with an uppercut that sent him into the air. He landed on the floor and was literally down for the count. Little Mac pushed himself up from the floor and held onto the rope around the ring. "You fight like the opponents back home. Guess fair play is too much to ask for. Let's have a rematch sometime, either here or in an actual Smash battle," Little Mac said with a hint of irritation. He got back on his feet and walked out of the room.

"Have any tricks that can work more than once?" A voice from the ceiling asked after Little Mac had left. K. Rool looked up and saw Ridley hanging upside down from the ceiling. Ridley released his grip on the ceiling, turned himself upright, and landed in front of K. Rool.

"Just say what you mean creep," K. Rool responded. He refused to give any sign of being surprised by Ridley's appearance. Instead he took off the boxing gloves so he could use his blunderbuss if needed.

"I want to know if allying with you is worth the trouble. You were already incompetent at navigating the mansion, you didn't even notice that I was using the Koopa brats' toys to spy on you," Ridley said. He held up a mechakoopa. K. Rool sucker punched the draconic space pirate and grabbed the mechakoopa.

"How's this for an answer?" K. Rool asked as he crushed the mechakoopa in his hand. Ridley had quickly recovered from the punch and kept a neutral expression.

"Decent. I'll help you with your monkey problem if you help me deal with my own inferior lifeform problem," Ridley said. K. Rool grinned.

"Anyone ready to help me put the hurt on those flea bitten apes is a friend of mine. You've got yourself a deal. Break it and I'll break your spine. Oh and since that lousy Fox ditched me I need someone to show me around the rest of this place and that nearby town," K. Rool said.

"Only if you don't treat me like one of your minions, no shoving or making me carry luggage," Ridley said. A mocking smile was plastered on his face. K. Rool was definitely getting payback on Fox at some point now.

"Fine. It's a deal," K. Rool said. Ridley reached out his closed claw and got a look of confusion in return. Ridley realized what he had done and a look of horror came on his face.

"Those damn Koopa brats and their constant fist bumping rubbed off on me. I should have known I would regret letting Bowser make me do those pointless tasks with them. Well anyway what do you say, 'friend?' To our new partnership," Ridley said. He and K. Rool fistbumped.

 **End of Chapter**

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, I've been doing these author's notes just on Ao3 due to it being a built in feature but after looking at some other fics decided to do them here as well. The order for the next chapters is Simon, Dark Samus, Richter, then the rest will be in announcement order. Since one reviewer asked about it I want to clarify that DLC newcomers will be covered as well when I finally get to them. On that note The Hero will have one chapter for all four characters included in his slot, the format will change a little to make it work but first I need to get through the rest of the base game cast. This chapter itself was fun to write, Captain Falcon and Red sort of showed up out of nowhere while I was writing it but I think they added to the chapter. I consider this a sort of a soft sequel to Ridley's chapter, and Dark Samus's chapter will wrap up this sort of story arc.**

 **I'm interested in hearing what veterans people would like to see in this fic. I have some concerns about overusing and overlooking certain characters so it'd be nice to see what characters readers would be interested in seeing in the future. It's not a 'give suggestions and I'll definitely use them' type deal like in some other fics though, I do have loose plans for this fic and those take priority but I may also include characters I didn't think of using if someone brings them up.**


	8. Simon: Confirmation

Simon Belmont held the Vampire Killer firmly in his hands as the stagecoach came into Smashville. It looked quite peaceful from what he could see outside the window, not like the type of place where his vampire slaying whip was needed. There were no gates or traces of monsters needing to be kept out by gates. Still it never hurt to be prepared and this was a fighting tournament he was going to. Of course there was no way Smash Mansion could be worse than Dracula's Castle.

The stagecoach pulled to a stop and Simon threw open the door. He stepped out onto the paved road of Smashville. The horses pulled the stagecoach forward and through a portal that had just opened up, it closed once its purpose had been fulfilled. Simon didn't trust the strange magic used by the Hands but it hadn't harmed him yet. There didn't seem to be any lingering effects from the closing of the portal either.

"Hey Simon," someone shouted. Simon spun around with the vampire killer ready to strike. He eased up when he saw who had shouted. A brown haired angel was running towards him with a younger boy following behind. They felt familiar somehow and Simon felt oddly sure that their names were Kid Icarus and Mega Man.

"Are you two my guides?" Simon asked.

"Yes. My name is Mega Man and this is Pit. It's nice to meet you Simon." So he had gotten one right and the other wrong based on pure instinct. Simon wasn't much of a thinker but he could tell something was up. "Pit I thought you told me you didn't know the newcomer's name," Mega Man said.

"Yeah I didn't," Pit said. He looked confused, Simon felt the same. Was there something he was missing?

"So you just shouted out a random name?" Mega Man asked.

"What do you- oh right. Uh, Simon is your name right? I don't know why but when I looked at you I really felt like that was your name," Pit said. While talking he waved his hands in front of him frantically like he was trying to block something.

"Yes, my name is Simon. Somehow I just knew Mega Man's name too. But I thought you were named Kid Icarus for some reason," Simon said.

"This is really weird. Now that I think about Pit looked oddly familiar when we first met and I get that feeling from you too. What's going on here?" Mega Man asked.

"I bet lady Palutena knows. She and Rosalina are up in the observatory I think," Pit said. Simon had planned on gathering information in the town anyway. Hopefully there wouldn't be any pranksters whose idea of a joke was giving false information to their only hope against the darkness. He most certainly wasn't bitter about any past experiences in his own world.

Simon followed Pit and Mega Man into the museum and past the sleeping curator. As they walked up the stairs to the observatory Simon caught sight of a sign for an exhibit. 'Coming soon: The Belmont Clan vs Dracula, a secret war. 1094 AD – 2036 AD.' Simon did a complete one eighty degree turn and rushed back down the stairs. Mega Man and Pit followed behind him as Simon leapt onto the first floor and shook the museum curator awake.

"Is there some emergency?!" Blathers exclaimed.

"Simon what are you doing to Blathers?" Pit asked.

"That exhibit on my family, how were you able to make it?" Simon asked. Mega Man pulled Simon away from Blathers with a surprising amount of strength.

"Calm down. When it comes to our worlds Master Hand commissions the exhibits and donates everything needed to start it up. Blathers is just using what he was given," Mega Man said. In other words Simon was going to have a long talk with the floating disembodied hand, not the anthropomorphic owl. That wasn't a thought he had ever expected to have. Simon wondered what he had done to deserve such a bizarre experience. Surely killing Dracula should have earned him something more sensible.

"Sorry. It's just that exhibit is rather suspicious. Because in my world it's the year 1699 but it claims to have knowledge from 2036," Simon explained. Mega Man looked up at one of the exhibits but quickly looked away and back at Simon. Simon had been able to trace Mega Man's gaze to an exhibit titled 'The Maverick Wars.' Was that based on Mega Man's world?

"Hoo that is quite strange. A similar thing happened with some other newcomers some time ago but I never did get around to asking Master Hand about it. I'll make sure to remember this time," Blathers said.

"Thank you. I'll handle the questioning myself, you don't need to get more involved. And sorry about waking you up," Simon said.

"Oh it's no problem I'm used to it. Feel free to wake me up if you ever want to donate something to the museum," Blathers said. Simon nodded and turned to head back up the stairs with Pit and Mega Man close behind. They walked up to the observatory at the top of the museum without further incident.

Inside the observatory there was another sleeping owl and two women who were seated and drinking tea. Pit immediately ran over to one of them with an excited shout of 'lady Palutena.' Simon guessed that the other one sitting next to the telescope was Rosalina. "Hello Simon, it's nice to meet you," Rosalina said. She gestured for him to come closer.

"How do you know my name?" Simon asked.

"Oh the two of us like to stay on the ball when it comes to newcomers. That way I know when to pull out the cameras. Who needs TV when you can watch Master Hand get beat up in slow motion on repeat?" Palutena answered. Simon didn't like where the conversation was going, he didn't know what a camera or TV was. "So is there anything you need?"

"Something weird is going on. Simon knew my name the moment we met and Pit knew his. All of us feel like we know each other but we're from other worlds, if we met we would know it right?" Mega Man asked. He tapped the side of his head like it would trigger the return of some missing memory.

"Oh. This might be a little hard to explain," Palutena said. Her tone had turned serious. Rosalina took a sip of tea and gently placed the cup back on the table.

"Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and the angel who fought against the Underworld are comrades. But they aren't you," Rosalina said.

"Say that again, but in a way that makes sense please," Simon said.

"Why didn't I get name dropped," Pit complained.

"I'll get to that later, there's a reason other than teasing you. Thanks to Master Hand this space is kind of a 'in between' area when it comes to different worlds," Palutena said. "That doesn't just include the ones he sends out letters to. And some worlds are a lot less different than you think. In fact they're so similar that they have the same people in them."

"There is another world that has a Simon Belmont of its own for example, in many ways that Simon is the same as you but you are still different people. However in a space like this where the walls between worlds are permeable something called Reality Bleed occurs. Reality Bleed is when somebody feels or remembers something that another world's version of them did," Rosalina continued.

"I think I see where this is going. There's another world where the three of us are friends right?" Mega Man asked.

"That's right. In that world Pit was named Kid Icarus for some weird reason so that's why Rosalina didn't use his name," Palutena said.

"So I knew Simon's name the moment I saw him because I'm already friends with him, but that's technically someone else except for the part where they're me, but they're not really me…" Pit scratched his head as he tried to work out what he had just heard. Palutena sighed.

"And that's why I waited this long to explain it. Don't think about it too much Pit. I don't want you to have an existential crisis," Palutena said.

"I'm not sure I fully get this but it doesn't sound like any kind of curse so I won't worry about it," Simon said. "But I still have one question you might be able to answer, there's going to be an exhibit which has things from the future of my world. How?"

"The flow of time in each world is like a river, if you get out of the river and walk next to it you can enter at any point you desire. Because Master Hand made this world his base he's stuck following the proper flow of time here, but for your world he can choose not just where but also when in it he appears. He's already used this to recruit a few Smashers from very different points in the timeline of their world," Rosalina explained.

"So that means he's already seen what the future in my world is like," Simon said. If that was true then Master Hand could have picked any Belmont he wanted to recruit. Had Simon really been the best option? Surely Leon, Trevor, or Christopher would have been Master Hand's preferred choice, and what of those who would come after Simon? He had screwed up and let himself get cursed in the battle with Dracula, and while getting rid of the curse he ended up bringing the damn vampire back for another chance to destroy humanity. According to the family records no prior Belmont had needed two tries to slay Dracula. So why was he the chosen representative of the Belmont clan?

"Hey Simon are you okay?" Mega Man asked. Simon realized he had been starring into space while running his hand over the Vampire Killer.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about what this all means," Simon said.

"I suppose you aren't in the mood to hear about our 'point of divergence' theory then?" Rosalina asked with a teasing smile.

"Hey I'm the one in charge of teasing here," Palutena said.

"We should go before they give you more of an existential crisis," Mega Man said. He grabbed both Simon and Pit by their hands, then dragged them out of the observatory despite Pit's protests. The door closed behind them on its own. Simon was still surprised by Mega Man's strength. Then he realized something he should have asked before getting dragged away by Mega Man. But he had a feeling Mega Man and Pit knew the answer anyway.

"How did those two know all of that anyway?" Simon asked. He broke his hand out of Mega Man's grip and took the lead going down the stairs to the museum exit. Pit was released and caught up with Simon.

"Lady Palutena is the goddess of light from my world and Rosalina is a goddess from another world. Well Rosalina has never called herself that but she definitely is, lady Palutena says so herself," Pit said. Normally the talk of gods would have put Simon on guard but Master Hand had made sure to stress to Simon that other worlds had their own gods so religiously motivated conflict would be both meaningless and get him kicked out of the mansion. As long as Palutena didn't demand tribute from him he was fine with her.

"Master Hand must have a lot of confidence to invite people like them here. Unless he really is that strong," Simon said. They walked past Blathers, who had fallen back to sleep. The trio stopped at the base of the stairs outside the museum.

"There's no way lady Palutena would ever cause trouble for Master Hand. Well, not the kind of trouble that gets people hurt at least. Besides Ridley and K. Rool are the ones you should keep an eye on, I don't trust those jerks," Pit said.

"Are you still mad about K. Rool stealing your ice cream?" Mega Man asked.

"Of course I am. Ice cream is a big deal. It wasn't just any ice cream either, it was floor ice cream," Pit said. He still sounded outraged about the incident.

"Who are you talking about?" Simon asked. He had decided not to dignify the idea of floor ice cream with any form of acknowledgement. Floor meat was something else entirely.

"Sorry. Two of the Smashers who joined recently have been causing a bit of trouble. But the mansion is neutral ground so it's not actual fighting, outside of the matches at least," Mega Man explained.

"If they do cause any trouble just leave it to me. Now are we going to the mansion? I'm interested in seeing where the fights happen," Simon said.

"Yeah. The taxi should be here any second," Mega Man said.

"Taxi?" Before his question could be answered what he assumed was the taxi pulled up and stopped in front of the group. A green creature around the same size as Blathers was sitting by the front with a wheel in its hands. Ignoring his own concerns Simon opened the door and got into the backseat of the taxi, despite the confusing lack of a visible power source (like a horse) it was still clearly something along the lines of a stagecoach. He had planned on walking but protesting wasn't worth it.

"Hey Kapp'n, three for Smash Mansion," Pit said as he sat down next to Simon.

"Simon you should put on your seatbelt," Mega Man said.

"No don't it's much more exciting without seatbelts," Pit said. Kapp'n gave a sigh.

"It really isn't. Now please put it on or I'll tell Palutena," Mega Man said. Kapp'n chimed in with a declaration that the taxi wouldn't move until everybody had their seatbelts on. Pit sadly put his seatbelt on. Simon didn't understand why it was needed but it was easy enough to do and seemed like it could be removed quickly if something went wrong. The taxi started moving down the road towards Smash Mansion.

Simon looked out the window, the scenery was passing by much faster than it had with the stagecoach before. "So I was about to say this before Kapp'n arrived, what do you guys think we should do about this Reality Bleed thing?" Mega Man asked.

"What can we do? It's not hindering us according to what Palutena and Rosalina said," Simon said.

"Are you really fine hanging out with us even if it in results in all of these strange feelings. Just because some other versions of us were friends doesn't mean we have to be if you don't want to," Mega Man said.

"It's not a problem for me. Even if we're friends that doesn't mean we'll have the same kind of friendship we did in some other world," Simon said.

"That's good. Don't get me wrong I do want to be friends, I'm just worried about losing sight of myself in all this Reality Bleed stuff. I think I've formed some friendships because of it without even realizing it was a thing. There was a time I nearly crossed the line, what if Reality Bleed gives me the push needed to actually cross it," Mega Man said.

"Oh, uh, that's deep," Pit said. Mega Man sighed. "Hey I don't know what to say to something like that," Pit protested.

"Don't worry about it, there isn't an easy response to something like that," Mega Man said.

"If you say so. Hey since we're all friends now let's take a picture to celebrate," Pit said. Part of Simon wanted to tell Pit he shouldn't leap to call people friends after just meeting them but another part of him was perfectly fine with that, maybe it was because of Reality Bleed or all the time spent journeying by himself. Pit held out some rectangular device in front of him, Simon had gotten something similar with his acceptance letter. "Hey Simon smile," Pit said. Simon smiled and Pit made a V sign with his free hand. There was a click and Pit turned the device around.

After explaining what a picture was Pit showed Simon the one he had just taken. Simon felt strange seeing such a lifelike image of himself in anything other than a mirror. It felt more unnerving than all the discussion of Reality Bleed and alternate selves. Thankfully Pit put his phone away so Simon didn't have to see the picture any longer. The conversation shifted to what their own worlds were like and Simon told the story of his two battles with Dracula.

"So your family has been fighting this Dracula guy for centuries? That's so cool," Pit said when Simon had finished describing his own world.

"It'd be cooler if he stopped coming back. And I don't think I'm going to be remembered well for having to fight him twice when all the past Belmonts only needed one try," Simon said. He looked down at the Vampire Killer. In a way it was the physical manifestation of the Belmont legacy. He sometimes wondered if his victories had more to do with it than him.

"But nobody else can say they beat Dracula twice," Pit said.

"And you were cursed the second time. Winning with something like that pulling you down is pretty impressive," Mega Man said.

"Thanks," Simon said. Was that the right way to respond to praise? Simon had no idea. He didn't agree with Pit and Mega Man's assessment either but it wasn't worth bringing that up. The taxi came to a stop in front of Smash Mansion. Simon opened the door and got out of the taxi, taking a second to clear his head. Out of all possible Belmonts he was the one who had been chosen to represent the family as a Smasher. His doubts didn't matter. He'd just overcome whatever challenges came at him next and show all those other worlds the power of Simon Belmont.

 **End of Chapter**

* * *

 **A/N: It's nice to finally have Reality Bleed properly introduced in this story. Technically I had it introduced in another fanfic but I don't want to make people jump between fanfics just for some exposition. Dawn of Sorrow is the only Castlevania game I've played so the Castlevania wiki was very helpful for this chapter. Actually there's a bit of trivia important to Simon's characterization here I only know because of it. Christoper Belmont from Castlevania: the Adventure needed two games to actually kill Dracula, however his second game involved his son being possessed by Dracula so it was deliberately omitted from historical records. In other words Simon only thinks he's the first Belmont who had to fight Dracula twice, chronologically he's the second.**

 **Dark Samus is up next. And if you were disappointed with Simon only really getting to interact with the rest of the Captain N trio you can expect another appearance from him when Richter's chapter comes around.**


	9. Dark Samus: Confirmation

Dark Samus was alive again. She looked around at her new location. It was an office with a desk standing between Dark Samus and the one other entity in the room. Said other entity was a floating disembodied gloved right human hand. Then Dark Samus realized she couldn't sense any Phazon outside of her own body. In other words she had been mutilated, robbed of an entire sense. And the Phazon that was in her body seemed incapable of spreading.

"I bet you're wondering why I brought you back," the floating hand said. The source of its voice was beyond Dark Samus's detection. "I'm Master Hand, one of the organizers of an inter-dimensional tournament you're competing in now. I had to neuter some of your power to keep everyone safe but you're free to live in this mansion and travel to other worlds, this includes returning to your world. As long as you agree that while in this world you'll abstain from fighting others outside of pre-arranged matches." Dark Samus nodded in response to Master Hand's demands. She could speak but deemed the nod a more efficient method to convey her consent.

After that Dark Samus followed Master Hand out of the office and towards the room that had been designated as her resting place. She had no need for sleep but the room could serve other functions. She refused the offer to receive a tour of the entire mansion and placed herself in the middle of the dark empty room.

Dark Samus did not know what purpose her newly reacquired life had. The spread of Phazon throughout the entire universe was her function, now that was impossible. Unlike humans and other sentient life forms she had no desires to satiate. Therefore Dark Samus concluded she would merely fight when ordered and conserve energy for that sole usage. Then Ridley opened the door to her room.

The two of them silently stared at each other. Ridley betrayed himself with a few subtle indications of fear, his body readied for both fight and flight. There weren't any traces of Phazon in the dragon unfortunately. Still even before then Ridley had served as a functional tool much like the rest of the Space Pirates. That recollection led Dark Samus to her new purpose, and reasserting control over the Space Pirates would be useful for that. Ridley slowly bowed in subservience under the weight of Dark Samus's gaze.

"Two objectives: restoration of Phazon and elimination of Galactic Federation. Take me to subordinates," Dark Samus ordered. She was aware that the Space Pirates had worshipped her but had never bothered paying attention to her cult so Ridley's blatantly false declarations that he had been awaiting her return meant nothing to her. She waited for the groveling to end and had Ridley lead the way to the teleporter room. In hindsight turning down that tour was a poor decision.

Much to Dark Samus's annoyance someone walked right up to Ridley while they were on their way to the teleporter. "K. Rool now is not the time," Ridley said. K. Rool looked at Dark Samus. She paid him no mind.

"So that's the newcomer? What you hate Samus but her clone is fine?" K. Rool asked. In a flash Dark Samus had her arm cannon right in K. Rool's face. The kremling backed away slowly with his hands held up defensively.

"Well this one hasn't tried to kill me yet. If you come along you might enjoy what we're about to do," Ridley said. He looked to Dark Samus and got an approving nod in return. There was strength in numbers.

"Only if you keep that arm cannon out of my face," K. Rool said. Like with Ridley there was a hint of fear in his demeanor now. He probably realized what would have happened if Dark Samus had taken the shot. Thankfully the rest of the short walk to the teleporter room was uneventful. Once they arrived Dark Samus waited patiently on the teleporter platform as Ridley typed in the coordinates. A bright light clouded her vision of her surroundings.

When Dark Samus's vision cleared she was in the dimly lit command room of a Space Pirate mothership. The design felt oddly familiar with the large monitors on the walls and central table that took up most of the room, it was exactly like the one from the ship where she first took control of the Space Pirates. If she didn't deem the gesture pointless she would have groaned at the shocked gasps and groveling all of the present Space Pirates gave. K. Rool awkwardly watched the scene unfold as Ridley marched over to the intercom.

"Attention all Space Pirates, the Dark Hunter has returned to us. It is her will that we recreate the substance of the promised land and finally eliminate those who destroyed it. Now here's what our first little step towards that will be…"

* * *

It was common for complaints to be made about how cramped the boarding pods were. Dark Samus didn't even know about the concept of claustrophobia so she had no complaints. She was so still that if her feet were on the floor instead of hovering over it she could be mistaken for a statue. Dark Samus remembered some statues she had seen depicting herself, made by the Space Pirates obviously. It was a needless recollection she didn't understand.

A siren began wailing as the door out of the boarding pod closed. It shot out of the ship like a bullet. When she felt the impact and heard the sound of the pod drilling through its target she aimed her arm cannon towards the exit. It opened up to the inside of a Galactic Federation ship.

Dark Samus threw herself out of the pod and scanned the area. For some reason it was empty. And barriers had been lowered on either side of the hall as though they knew an intruder would appear there. Something struck Dark Samus from behind and sent her into the air. Dark Samus turned around and landed on her feet, arm cannon pointed at her attacker.

"You're the newcomer who was just recruited aren't you? I guess Samus was right to be suspicious," Shulk said. Dark Samus took a few seconds to piece together what he meant. She was fighting another Smasher. Dark Samus began charging up a shot. Shulk seemed distracted during the charge. Then he refocused just in time to dodge the shot. "They're going to blow up the engines, someone stop them," Shulk shouted into a communicator.

Dark Samus didn't know or care how Shulk knew that. The important thing was that he revealed part of the plan and needed to be killed. Shulk sidestepped the grapple beam and closed the distance between him and Dark Samus. She got into morph ball form and rolled past him, dropping a bomb right between his legs. Shulk jumped away from it and nearly hit Dark Samus with the Monado.

"Samus look out Ridley is trying to ambush you. I'm currently fighting Dark Samus," Shulk said into his communicator. That wasn't even information Dark Samus had. Samus's possible presence on the ship was considered unlikely and with what had happened already Shulk could ruin all of the contingencies for that.

"Smasher present. Knows our movements. Requesting aid for his elimination," Dark Samus uttered through her comm link. She leapt over Shulk and fired a missile down at him, he rolled out of the way. The fight continued with neither of them being able to land a hit. Sometimes Shulk seemed to know what Dark Samus was doing before she did but with quick adjustments she had avoided the counterattacks. Their dance of dodging was disrupted by a green ball of energy that Shulk blocked by summoning a yellow forcefield around himself. The disruption had come from an air vent, a dark green cyborg crawled out of it. Dark Samus recognized him. It was Weavel, the Space Pirate Bounty Hunter who had fought Samus over the 'Ultimate Power' in the Alimbic Cluster.

"Leave him to me," Weavel said. Dark Samus nodded and blasted open a hole in one of the barriers. Before Shulk could stop her Weavel jumped between them and his scythe clashed with the Monado.

"Samus look out Dark Samus is heading your way. Samus come in!" Shulk shouted into his communicator. That was a sign at least something had gone to plan, the Galactic Federation's comms network on the ship was down. Meaning Dark Samus could ambush Samus and remove her from the equation.

"Die quickly will you, I've been waiting for another chance to kill Samus for ages," Weavel said. Shulk responded with a determined glare and slash of the Monado. Dark Samus left the duel behind her as she sped through the ship. The halls were filled with the bodies of Galactic Federation soldiers and Space Pirates. Barriers had been lowered around all of the impact points for the boarding pods but holes had been blown through all of them. Foresight only helped so much.

Gradually Dark Samus drew closer to the sounds of Samus and Ridley fighting again. Some soldiers for the Galactic Federation tried to stand in Dark Samus's way but her missiles made short work of them. With nobody else standing in her way Dark Samus was free to enter the research center where Ridley and Samus were currently fighting.

It was a wide rectangular room with rows of computers lined up against all four walls. Above them were sets of walkways and ladders for easier access regardless of what floor of the ship someone was on. Dark Samus couldn't make out any corpses but a good number of the computers had been destroyed by collateral damage from Ridley and Samus's ongoing fight. They were so busy fighting each other they didn't notice Dark Samus entering and surveying the room.

Dark Samus had an impulse to immediately attack Samus but she held back. She walked over to one of the computer terminals on the opposite side of the room from where Samus was punching Ridley in the face repeatedly, and downloaded some important data about the PED suits onto a storage device. Dark Samus placed it somewhere safe and charged up a shot before firing it directly at Samus. The hit connected and knocked her down. Ridley seized the chance and jumped on top of Samus, slashing her with his claws and letting fireballs fall out of his mouth. Dark Samus doubted she needed to do anything more to see Samus finally killed.

"Falcon Kick!" Dark Samus looked up just in time to see Captain Falcon leap down from a higher floor and somehow cover his feet with fire right before they made contact with Ridley. Ridley stumbled and Samus fired a missile right at him. Dark Samus fired missiles of her own at Captain Falcon as he landed but he ran right past them and brought his knee up to her chest. The impact sent pain throughout Dark Samus's body.

Logically there was no reason to continue the battle. Despite that Dark Samus used her grapple beam to grab Captain Falcon and pulled him right into an uppercut. Meanwhile Ridley found himself stuck to the floor thanks to a direct hit from Samus's ice beam. Both of his feet were encased in ice and the flood of power beam shots left with him no opening to melt them with a fireball. Captain Falcon recovered from Dark Samus's uppercut while still in the air and pulled out a gun. A small shot of energy burst out from it and struck Ridley. The draconic Space Pirate fell to the ground paralyzed.

Undeterred Dark Samus kept firing her power beam. Unfortunately for her Samus and Captain Falcon spread out as they approached and forced her to chose which one to aim at. The best she could do was keep them away while dodging their projectiles until one of her own landed. Then a sword slashed Dark Samus in the back.

"Sorry I'm so late," Shulk said. He was covered in a dark blue aura. Dark Samus retaliated with a missile. Shulk ducked and the missile made contact with an unsuspecting Weavel, who ran right into it. Samus charged up her power beam while Captain Falcon cracked his knuckles.

"Self destruct initiated. Two minutes remaining until self destruct," a robotic voice called out throughout the ship. Seeing an opening Dark Samus aimed her grapple beam at a higher level and pulled her up there. Samus fired shots at her that just barely missed.

"We don't have the time Samus we need to get out of here," Captain Falcon said. With that the trio of heroic Smashers made their exit. Right as they left King K. Rool ran in on the floor Dark Samus had fled to. He looked down and saw the fallen Ridley and Weavel.

"I'll grab him," K. Rool said. He jumped down and picked up Ridley.

"He failed. Weavel did better. Why rescue him?" Dark Samus questioned.

"He's way more useful than all of those other grunts but I'll grab that cyborg too if it makes you shut up," K. Rool responded as he broke the ice around Ridley's feet. Dark Samus didn't bother staying around to confirm K. Rool's rescue of the two elite Space Pirates. To her escaping efficiently with the stolen data was the most important thing. Despite completing the objective it still felt like a failure.

* * *

After handing off the stolen data Dark Samus returned to Smash Mansion ahead of Ridley and King K. Rool. She didn't care about the specifics of the plans or what exactly they learned from the stolen data. She cared only for the results. Right as Dark Samus left the teleporter room she came face to face with Shulk. Remembering the rule about not fighting in the mansion was the only reason she didn't immediately attack him. Shulk had a firm grip on the Monado. They glared at each other for a few seconds before continuing on their respective ways. It wasn't as though they could do anything to each other in the mansion.

Dark Samus returned to her room and settled in the exact center. She waited patiently and after some time had passed Ridley and K. Rool entered. "Why the hell did you just run off before anyone could even blink?" K. Rool asked.

"Nobody can attack in Mansion, safest place," Dark Samus said. K. Rool's left eye twitched.

"Anyway Shulk and Captain Falcon are going to be a problem if they keep helping out Samus. We should attack their worlds as well," Ridley suggested. Dark Samus nodded in approval. Phazon didn't make plans, it spread. She also noted the names and deduced who they referred to from the shout of 'Falcon Kick' during the battle.

"We'll be on our own then since the teleporter just doesn't work if you try to take non-Smashers anywhere but here or their own world," K. Rool said.

"What, scarred without having some of your own minions backing you up," Ridley said.

"No. I ain't fighting a losing battle. And if you have any 'witty' response to that just remember that both of you have been killed and I haven't," K. Rool retaliated.

"He's right," Dark Samus said.

"I'm working on finding another way to travel through worlds. But until then the three of us are more than enough to do some damage," Ridley said. Dark Samus noticed the abrupt change of subject.

"Well when you put it that way I've been meaning to visit Falcon's world for a while now," K. Rool said.

"Save some for me you glutton. I still need to heal from that last battle since not all of us got to pick on small fry. But I think it's time I had a chat with Wolf," Ridley said. The two of them had sinister grins spread across their faces. Dark Samus watched silently as they left to carry out their respective tasks.

* * *

"You two owe Samus an explanation for this," Peach said. A meeting had been called in Master Hand's office, he and Crazy Hand floated next to each other while Peach and Samus sat in chairs on the opposite side of the desk. Mewtwo stood at the side with his back against the wall. Master Hand sighed.

"You know that this isn't just a mere tournament but a way to call upon warriors to face grave threats that threaten all worlds. I can't turn down a powerful fighter just because of their morals," Master Hand said.

"It's actually because there's a really crazy, not like me, powerful bad guy who might do stuff soon. There might even be two. Oh what if it was three, three is a fun number, as long as it's five or less so we can count them ourselves it'll be fine. You know I don't-"

"Enough Crazy," Master Hand said, his voice filled with irritation.

"So you're so scared of this new threat that you started recruiting even Space Pirates?" Samus asked. She crossed her arms and kept her glare focused on Master Hand. Master Hand sighed again.

"Yes. We don't know much about them but they're dangerous. So we've had to do all of our observations from a distance too great to make out anything important. But there is a trail of destruction going through multiple worlds that proves something is there. Whatever this new enemy is they can clearly travel through worlds relatively freely," Master Hand said.

"Hey why do they always say 'free as a bird' when birds have so many commitments with migration and stuff. Wouldn't sloths fit better since they just laze around all day…" Crazy Hand continued with his ignored tangent.

"Is there anything we can do to help? We can't just sit by while entire worlds are destroyed, it might even target one of our worlds," Peach said.

"Don't worry I have all of your worlds concealed from creatures like that. The only thing we can do is observe until we know enough to attack. If we reveal ourselves to whatever this enemy is before we're ready it would spell ruin for every world," Master Hand said.

"I'm not too petty to see the bigger picture but the Space Pirates genuinely can't be trusted. You're endangering other worlds already by letting the Space Pirates know about them."

"But if Master does too much then we lose our balance and Master Core comes out again. Chaos is fun Sammy, live on the risky side for a bit," Crazy Hand said. Samus gave him a thumbs down.

"Don't worry Samus. Crazy has a point but just because they can't do anything doesn't mean we can't. Mewtwo can you contact some people?" Peach asked.

"I already went ahead and did that. Greninja and Snake have received a telepathic message from me asking for their assistance. Give them time to respond. Actually both just gave their agreement to help surveil Dark Samus and her followers."

"Thank you. Come on Samus, let's go talk to DK and Diddy. They need to know that the Kremlings might be backed up by the Space Pirates now," Peach said. She stood up and took Samus's hand.

"Are you sure you're fine with this Peach? You've been so proud of being a peacekeeper here. I can talk to the Kongs myself. You don't need to do all of this for me," Samus said as she remained seated.

"Don't worry I'm not giving that up. But sometimes in order to keep the peace you have to start a fight. I hope I can make peace with Dark Samus and the others eventually but I know that if I extend an olive branch now they'll burn it. Besides you haven't been feeling well ever since Ridley arrived so if an anti-Space Pirate alliance is what it takes to make you feel better then I'll form one," Peach explained.

"Thank you Peach," Samus said after a short silence. She stood up and walked out of the room with Peach. Mewtwo teleported himself out of the room with no further comment.

"Things just keep on getting more and more complicated. I think I'll need some help keeping track of everything," Master Hand said to himself. He began writing a letter as Crazy Hand teleported out to recruit the next newcomer.

 **End of Chapter**

* * *

 **A/N:** **And with that we have the debut of what I refer to as the Brute Trio, though they have some notable allies of their own to call on both from the Smash roster and their own games. When I first started writing this I wasn't expecting it to develop any sort of overarching plot but with Ridley's chapter things started falling into place, and the long hiatus allowed me to think ahead in regards to certain characters and other story elements. Also a quick shout out to OmniFandomGhost, who was the one that gave me the idea for using Shulk here, which is good since he's the only veteran in this chapter I haven't used already for some reason. Sadly I couldn't show him off too much in this chapter since Dark Samus doesn't lend herself well to dialogue heavy scenes but I hope I gave his fighting abilities a good showing. Even giving Dark Samus the ability to talk in the first place has no direct basis in canon but there had to be someway she communicated her orders to the Space Pirates in Prime 3.**

 **Lastly as of this writing Hero is finally coming out tonight/next morning depending on your region and potential server crashes, I hope everyone has fun with him. He looks almost as hard to play as his chapter will probably be to write.**


	10. Richter: Confirmation

"This looks like the place," Richter said to himself as he walked up to Smash Mansion. Part of him still worried that the whole thing was a trap. Past experiences had taught him to be very careful. He had considered rejecting the invitation outright, but Annette had convinced him to take it. She thought it would be a good change of pace for him. Richter felt some kind of presence near him and stopped the recollection. He readied the Vampire Killer and looked around.

"Well well, it looks like we have another vampire hunter here," Bayonetta said. She was sitting on the roof of the mansion. She leapt off the roof and descended gracefully, aided by a pair of large butterfly wings that emerged from her back. Richter looked at her shadow, which appeared to belong to someone else entirely, someone who wasn't human. He prepared himself for a battle. "My, you're just as rude as the other one too. Surely you can tell the difference between a witch and a vampire."

"If you're with the forces of darkness I'll fight you anyway," Richter said.

"Cheeky aren't you. Vampires are just too dull for me, but we can still have some fun. Though the hand might get cranky if I don't take you out to dinner first. Come along now fledgling, let's get this tour over with," Bayonetta said. She walked up the steps and pushed open the front door, letting it close behind her as she walked in. Richter kept on guard as he opened the door and followed her inside.

At the very least Smash Mansion had a friendlier décor than Dracula's Castle, it looked like a place the living spent time in. Richter kept the Vampire Killer ready as he followed behind Bayonetta, who seemed to be making a point of pretending Richter wasn't there. She reminded him too much of Shaft and the series of events that definitely put Richter as the laughingstock of the Belmont clan. There was failure and then there was reviving your own enemy.

The first stop on the tour was one of the lounge rooms. There were a few couches and chairs around the center, a TV (Bayonetta called it that but Richter didn't bother asking what it was), and some tables. A woman with the symbol of an eye on her white shirt was seated on one of the couches while a small blue anthropomorphic hedgehog sat on the other end playing a few notes on a guitar.

"Hey Bayo, is that the new guy?" The hedgehog asked. Before Richter could react, the hedgehog was in front of him and extending a hand. Richter shook it. "Sonic's the name, speed's my game."

"I'm Richter Belmont."

"Oh, are you Simon's cousin or something?" Sonic asked.

"Simon?" Richter asked. He had an ancestor with that name, but he didn't know of any other Belmonts who were still alive.

"Must be a coincidence I guess," Sonic said. The woman on the couch got up and walked over to them.

"You can call me Sheik. It's nice to meet you Richter." They shook hands as well.

"Well now that we have that out of the way, I think we should get going," Bayonetta said.

"Sounds like somebody's in a rush," Sonic said.

"Like you're one to talk hedgehog. Though if our little fledgling wants to take his time then I'll kick back for a bit," Bayonetta said. She jumped over the couch and landed on it, with her legs covering the armrest. Sheik gave an irritated sigh in response.

"Is she always like that?" Richter asked. He pointed to the armrest that was now a legrest for emphasis.

"Unfortunately, yes, and she is far from the most disruptive person here," Sheik said.

"Hey, don't be so hard on her. She's just got her own style. You have to respect someone who doesn't compromise on stuff like that," Sonic said. "So what do you do in your free time Richter?"

"To be honest I just train whenever I'm not goofing off. It helps me clear my mind," Richter said.

"Do you like listening to music?" Sheik asked.

"Haven't had too many chances for that, well aside from Maria and Annette singing. The two of them are great singers, makes me wish I had that kind of talent. Vampire slaying stops being cool when you run out of vampires," Richter said.

"That's the paradox all heroes face. Victory means a world where you're no longer needed, more people here deal with that feeling than you'd expect. Still, if you're skilled enough to be here I'm sure you can pick up some other skills. Why not try learning some form of music? I could show you how to play a harp, and Sonic is a skilled guitar player," Sheik offered, gesturing to Sonic's guitar.

"I'm up for showing you how to play a few notes if you want. Sheik knows some cool magic that works with music," Sonic said.

"You say that, but you turned down learning how to use it yourself," Sheik said.

"Just because it's not my style doesn't mean it isn't cool, or that it isn't Richter's style," Sonic said.

"Well now I'm definitely interested. Maybe you could teach me how to play the guitar and Sheik can show me some of that magic. I can try to teach you some of the magic from my world in return," Richter said.

"That would be nice. We should let you get on with your tour before Bayonetta becomes too complacent. Just message us when you have time," Sheik said.

"You mean with this thing?" Richter asked, pulling the smart phone out of his pocket. He had read the instructions for the smart phone, but found them too confusing to understand.

"Maybe you should do a test run of it here. Just press the red button and wait for the screen to light up, then press the icon in it that reads 'public chat,'" Sheik said. Richter followed the instructions and watched curiously as the smartphone came to life. He pressed the icon he had been told about and the screen changed to show lines of text with names next to them.

"That's the main chatroom, everyone gets to post there. You used to be able to set a nickname there, but it got scrapped after a few incidents. Try sending something to introduce yourself," Sonic said. Richter was about to ask how, but he saw the letters pop up on the screen. There were also a variety of different symbols to use. He quickly got used to the interface and sent his first post.

"That is a… great quantity of emojis," Sheik commented when she saw the post.

"Ha, I like it. Anyway, just press that arrow in the corner when you need to back out of something. It can also do direct messaging between people and make calls, and it has an alert system too if you ever need help. A lot of people struggled with it at first so don't be afraid to ask for help," Sonic said.

"Now that I'm actually using it this feels a lot easier to understand. I'll get in touch with you guys later," Richter said.

"Shall we get on with the tour then?" Bayonetta asked. She kicked herself up to a standing position and moved out to the hallway.

"See ya," Sonic said as Richter moved to follow Bayonetta down the hallway. Richter was able to quickly draw a map of the mansion in his mind during the tour, a little trick that had been passed down through the Belmont clan. Dracula's Castle kept changing its layout so that skill had taken the place of just handing down a map of it.

"There's something you should be warned about fledgling," Bayonetta said. "Some of the other newcomers are being rather naughty. Dark Samus has really soured the mood here, and she's just such a bore on top of that. Try not to let her or her goons gobble you up. You can always run and hide behind the better Samus if you get too scared."

"I thought the invite strictly said no fighting outside of scheduled matches?" Richter asked.

"You should read more carefully little fledgling, it said no fighting in the mansion. There's nothing against taking little trips to other worlds and fighting there," Bayonetta said.

"Well if they know what's good for them, they'll keep out of mine," Richter said. He hadn't realized he was putting his world in danger by accepting that invitation. Then again, if Master Hand could get to it there were probably others who could find their way into Richter's world. At least now he could be prepared if invaders from another world appeared. Richter would have to intensify his training in case that happened, another failure was not acceptable.

"Naughty children never know what's good for them," Bayonetta said. They walked through the hangar and out to the field on the left side of the mansion. There were courts for different sports laid out in the distance. At the moment two people were using the field for training. One of them was a boy with blue hair in a top knot and a tank of blue ink on his back, the other had a whip that looked like the Vampire Killer. Actually, when Richter compared them he saw that it was in fact the Vampire Killer. The two strangers turned to look at Richter and Bayonetta.

"How do you have Vampire Killer?!" Richter and the other whip user shouted at the same time, entering their similar fighting stances.

"Really Belboy? We have enough noise already without your screaming," Bayonetta complained.

"How many times do we have to go over this? It's Belmont, Simon Belmont. My family has fought Dracula for generations, the least you could do is get our name right witch," the man said. Richter's eyes went wide as he pieced things together. It seemed impossible, but he was in another world after all.

"Simon Belmont? The same one who defeated Dracula twice?" Richter asked.

"Yes, you could say that I did that. Now why do you have the Vampire Killer?"

"Because I'm your descendant, Richter Belmont." Simon looked down at his Vampire Killer and to Richter's. The two of them stared at each other, whips lowered.

"You know, this isn't even the first time someone met their own descendant here, so don't go thinking you're special or anything. Master Hand likes to take people from different points in time for some reason, he's quite a strange one," Bayonetta said. She circled the two of them like a shark, obviously amused by the turn of events.

"I take it Dracula and his servants are still a threat in your time?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, don't worry though, I beat them back. I made some screw ups, but everything turned out all right in the end," Richter said. He looked down at his Vampire Killer, he couldn't bear to mention what happened with Shaft. Not in front of one of the greatest Belmonts.

"Hey, I'm here too," the blue haired boy said. Now that Richter had a closer look parts of the boy's hair looked more like tentacles.

"Oh, sorry, what's your name?" Richter asked.

"It's Nept," the boy said. He got into a stance that looked somewhat similar to the one Simon had gotten into and made a face that was most likely supposed to look tough. Richter could spot several weaknesses in Nept's stance.

"Nept, why don't you go run to the lake and back?" Simon suggested.

"But that's so boring," Nept said. He immediately reverted to standing normally.

"It builds stamina. Now go," Simon said. He crossed his arms and gave Nept a stern look. Nept sighed and started running, still carrying the ink tank on his back.

"You're really putting that little one to work," Bayonetta said.

"He asked for training, he's getting it. That's all there is to it," Simon said. He kept his arms crossed as he shifted from watching Nept to giving Bayonetta a very unamused look.

"Something tells me the little one doesn't feel the same way. His constant prattling about 'mister Belmont' is getting a tad irritating." Bayonetta said.

"So, uh, sorry to interrupt, but how are we going to handle this time travel weirdness?" Richter said.

"Just treat me like anyone else here, I've never been one for formalities anyway. If you're here you must have some accomplishments to your name worthy of respect. I'm looking forward to fighting by your side, or against you," Simon said.

"Nah it'd be kind of boring to have a fight with both of us in it, I stuck pretty close to the old family techniques. No point in a fight with identical fighters," Richter said. He tugged on his headband.

"Oh my, sounds like somebody is a little scarred grandpa is better than them," Bayonetta said. She was right, but Richter wasn't going to admit it.

"Just ignore her. A battle between us would be a great way to refine our ancestral style. Take some time to get adjusted first, but I'm sure there's much I have to learn from you," Simon said.

"Yeah, sure, I'll see you later, need to get my room set up and finish this tour so I can get rid of her," Richter said, pointing to Bayonetta with his thumb. He turned away and walked back into the mansion, clenching his fist. He wished Annette, Maria, or even Alucard were at the Mansion. At least Alucard couldn't be disappointed even further. The rest of the tour went by in a distracted blur that concluded in front of his room. Which was right across from Simon's room. The potential for humiliation was far too high.

"Well fledgling here's your new little nest, have fun decorating it and don't come crying to me for help. It's Simon's job to let you bother him now after all," Bayonetta said. Richter didn't bother giving a response that he knew would be either ignored or used as further ammunition for teasing.

All of Richter's belongings were in the room, waiting to be unpacked. He already had all the furniture he needed: a bed, shelf, desk, and chair. Richter's dagger, axe, and cross were all hung on the wall opposite of his bed. His pocket watch was placed on the windowsill by the bed while the bottle of holy water and bible were placed on the shelf. Vampire Killer was kept at Richter's side for the moment, but a spot on the wall above the head of his bed was set aside for it, since he would have to sleep at some point. He had tried sleeping while holding Vampire Killer once, the night after he was freed from Shaft's control. It did not end well. With the weapons out of the way Richter put his spare clothes in the closet and the ancestral scrolls on the shelf. Last were the papers and pencils for when he wanted to write letters back home. Annette and Maria had both forced promises out of him to write frequently.

There was a knock on the door. Richter didn't bother wondering who was on the other side when he opened it. Which was good since he didn't recognize the woman who had been knocking. "Hello, you're the newcomer Richter, right? My name is Peach, princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. I wanted to come and say hello, I know how much of a handful Bayonetta can be at times."

"Yeah that's me. It's nice to meet you, your highness," Richter said.

"Please just call me Peach." Peach put her gloved hands together and looked around the hallway. "There was something I wanted to talk to you about. May I come in?" Richter stepped back and let Peach in, who closed the door behind her.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" Richter asked.

"You see, there's a museum in town that Master Hand has contributed a lot to, and he has powers that lets him enter our worlds at any point in time. So, there's an exhibit about your world with information from your future, and about what you went through. If you don't believe me, I can take you to see it," Peach said.

"I don't think I want to see it. I guess if Master Hand could bring Simon here from the past it makes sense he could go to the future too."

"Simon feels the same way, I heard he had the quite reaction when he first saw the exhibit on your world. I think the exhibit may be more detailed than either of you would like, it mentioned… what Shaft did to you after your first fight against him," Peach said. Richter's hand went right to the Vampire Killer, then returned to hanging at his side since there wasn't anything to fight.

"At least Simon doesn't know," Richter said. He tried to make his body less tense, but his hand wouldn't leave the whip. Shaft had gotten him when he had just dropped his guard.

"I don't think he would judge you for it, you're family after all. I know what it's like to have your own body controlled by someone else. You don't have to say anything about what happened, it'd hurt for me to talk about what my experience was like too. I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone with this. I know this is all sudden, but if you need to talk with someone who experienced something similar, I'm here," Peach said. Richter hadn't been expecting that reaction. Annette and Maria had both asked about what it had been like being possessed, Richter had found it difficult to describe it to them. He had no problem confiding in either of them, it was just something only those with firsthand experience could truly understand.

"It's creepy how hard it is to remember what you actually thought during the possession. Makes it hard to know what you really believe sometimes," Richter said. He often heard the words Shaft made him say echo in his head. What was his purpose now that Dracula was gone for the century? He had never thought of that before Shaft controlled him, then the question became inescapable.

"And how strange it feels to move even a little bit afterwards, it felt like my arms were attached to strings the day after I was freed," Peach said.

"I was worried I couldn't walk anymore for a few seconds. Glad it didn't turn out like that, the whole thing was bad enough already. Doesn't help that the one who broke the spell fought alongside one of my ancestors, I don't want to think about how pathetic I must seem compared to Trevor," Richter said.

"You sound like Simon, he's talked about struggling to live up to Trevor and Leon's standards before." Peach said.

"Why would Simon need to worry about that? He beat Dracula twice, in my time he's listed among the greatest Belmonts," Richter said.

"Everybody has their own doubts. You're a Smasher now, that means you have your own strengths too," Peach said. A ringing sound came from her pocket, Peach pulled out her phone and gave Richter an apologetic look. "Sorry, this looks important. Hello, what is it Snake? K. Rool is doing what?! Well I guess he's not harming anybody now, but keep an eye on him. I want you to look into how he built that machine too, and if he's building anything else like that." Peach ended the call and turned to Richter. "It looks I have to go now."

"What happened?" Richter asked.

"K. Rool, one of the newcomers who's been causing a bit of trouble, apparently built a racing machine just like the ones in Captain Falcon's world and is taking it for a spin. On an abandoned racetrack where it's illegal to race, and his racing machine isn't registered so that's even more illegal. I'm more concerned about what else he might build, Master Hand can handle the paperwork if K. Rool gets arrested," Peach explained. She hurried off to handle the situation in person. Richter didn't want to slow her down, so he didn't ask who Captain Falcon and K. Rool were.

In her rush to leave Peach had forgotten to close the door behind her, giving Richter a clear look at the door to Simon's room. Even with the knowledge that Simon was outside just the sight of the nameplate that read 'Simon Belmont- #66' made Richter feel nervous. Richter looked at the nameplate on his own door, he also had the 66 next to his name. Apparently Master Hand considered the two of them equals in some way. With their doors set up like that avoiding Simon wasn't going to be an option.

Richter made up his mind to head out and train with Simon. The Belmonts never fled, Simon had faced his curse head on and overcame it, so Richter would follow in that example. Before leaving his room there was something else Richter wanted to do. He took a piece of paper and a pencil, and started writing a letter to Annette about how the day had gone so far. After a bit of thought he found the words for the important part of the letter.

 _I know you've been worried about me ever since Shaft possessed me, you've always been able to see right through me, but I think I'm finally getting past what happened thanks to the people here in Smash Mansion. I even met someone who offered to teach me how to play the guitar. It'd be great if we could play a song together sometime._

* * *

 **A/N:** **It took way too long, but at long last Richter's chapter is done. Richter was oddly difficult to write and a lot of plans for this chapter ended up not panning out, like Alucard appearing and being forced into his Captain N outfit. Peach sort of forced her way into the chapter and brought the Brute Trio subplot with her, but I think her conversation with Richter was my favorite part. Simon's relationship with both Richter and Nept/ Agent 4 is definitely something I plan on exploring more, if not in a later chapter then in its own fic. You can also expect to learn more about K. Rool's antics in Isabelle's chapter.**

 **Lastly I'd like to give a shout out to Super Smash Prose, a discord server for Smash Bros fanfiction and fanart which helped me with finally getting Richter's chapter done. If any of you are interested in joining it the code is gDK48ua** **.**


	11. Isabelle: Confirmation

Isabelle patiently waited in front of the door to Master Hand's office. About a minute after she had knocked the door opened. "I'm so sorry Isabelle, I was too caught up in my work," Master Hand apologized.

"I understand. Sometimes I get so focused on my work that I forget to sleep or eat," Isabelle said.

"You have that problem as well? I'm not sure if this is fortunate or an ill omen. Anyway, how has your first day as a Smasher been so far?" Master Hand asked.

"It's been wonderful, the mayor and Daisy helped me set up my room, then Ace helped me work on my aim, and I promised to go shopping with Link and Zelda tomorrow," Isabelle said.

"That's good to hear," Master Hand said. He ushered Isabelle in, there was a large table in the back corner with a computer and large stack of paperwork, nearly identical to the one in the center of the room. "As you can see, I already prepared your desk. I'm loathe to force this upon you on your first day here, but I have multiple urgent matters demanding my attention. King K. Rool, fighter number sixty seven, was recently arrested in another world. I want you to fill out the paperwork for his release," Isabelle said.

"Oh no, that's terrible. What was K. Rool arrested for?" Isabelle asked.

"Possessing an unregistered racing machine and racing in a restricted area. They threw him into one of the most secure prisons in that world, full of some of the worst criminals. Apparently they knew right away something was wrong about his very presence in their world," Master Hand said.

"Well don't worry, I'll get him out and back here quickly," Isabelle said. She sat down at her desk and went right to work. The relevant paperwork had been put on top of the decently large stack. "So what's the other thing you need done?"

"You don't need to concern yourself with that, I'm handling it as we speak," Master Hand said. He was looking between three monitors on his desk which all displayed various graphs and maps. "Actually, considering the Subspace incident and your role here… can you keep a secret Isabelle?"

"I'm great at keeping secrets," Isabelle said. Master Hand took a deep breath and turned to face Isabelle.

"We may be in danger soon. For quite some time I've noticed that something has been leaving a trail of mass destruction through multiple worlds. I've recently confirmed there are in fact two entities responsible for all of that devastation. And Crazy Hand was able to gain footage of one of them. This is from a world called Grastea," Master Hand said. He turned to the central monitor and opened up a video on it.

Isabelle held her breath as she watched the video. It showed a world that seemed peaceful at first glance, with clear green plains and a bright blue sky. Then a hole was thrown open in the sky. A single large eye could be seen on the other side of the hole, covered by dark thorns. The thorns rushed into the world and enveloped it entirely. Then the screen went dark. If it weren't for the sight of that single eye floating in the sky Isabelle would have assumed that the video had already ended. It ended right as the eye turned to look directly into the camera.

"What… what was that thing?" Isabelle asked.

"For now we have decided to deem it 'Dharkon.' It appears to have some form of connection to the other entity, who has been given the name 'Galeem,' whose form of destruction utilizes light. At this stage it's hard to determine what that connection is precisely, for our sake let us hope they are not allies," Master Hand said.

"The people in that world, are they…"

"I don't know. What little data we were able to get suggests both that the people of that world were killed and that they were spared, despite the obvious fact that those are contradictory. What's truly concerning is that this is a world two Smashers, Marth and Mega Man, have paid visit to before. It's difficult to describe, but there is a certain 'geography' when it comes to worlds and their relative distance. Because of this we can get at least a vague idea of Dharkon and Galeem's trajectory. They're set to strike worlds that while lacking in Smashers have been visited by them before," Master Hand said.

"I'll send the warning letters right away. We need to evacuate those worlds. Just tell me where," Isabelle said. Master Hand curled up his fingers and turned to look back at his monitors.

"We can't. Crazy Hand had to take a long detour in order to return without letting Dharkon know our location. If we go into those worlds now the risk of being detected is unacceptably high, it would reveal our location and we would be targeted next. We must bide our time and uncover some form of weakness in Dharkon and Galeem. Otherwise there will be nobody left to fight, and those two will have free reign. You saw what Dharkon could do in that video, I currently have no way to counteract such power," Master Hand said. Isabelle slammed her hand on the desk.

"There has to be something," she said.

"That's why I'm looking. I need your help to keep things running and uncover how we can save all those worlds. And, in the event that I am… eliminated, you need to carry out my contingencies. Inform Peach that she is the acting leader of the Smashers until the resolution of the crisis, give her all of my files, and send out these." Master Hand snapped his fingers and a compartment opened in the back wall. Inside the compartment were five letters sealed in envelopes that had the symbol of the Smashers on them.

"Got it," Isabelle said. She wanted to say more, but she knew there was nothing more to say. She reminded herself that it was just a contingency Master Hand had gone over, a backup that wouldn't actually be used. The work for K. Rool's release from prison seemed trivial compared to what had just been discussed, but Isabelle tried to sink herself into it and all the minor things that needed to be done. Dharkon couldn't be fought if they didn't have the funds for good weaponry.

As usual Isabelle lost track of time while working, but for once she was thankful for it. Solving problems always made her better no matter how minor. Things that couldn't be solved always haunted her, even before those problems abruptly escalated to the world destroying kind. It was dark out when Master Hand pulled himself out of his work just long enough to tell Isabelle that she was done for the day.

Isabelle made her way out of the mansion and called for Kapp'n's taxi to take her to The Roost. She wasn't in a mood to talk, but Kapp'n talked so much that before she knew it she was talking about all sorts of minor, trivial things. The fact that she hadn't been able to go for a walk in the garden became the worst thing that happened that day. When they arrived at The Roost she left a tip and got out of the taxi.

Most of the other regulars had already arrived for the night. Simon, Mega Man, Pit, and Richter had taken one of the tables in the corner for themselves while Falco and Wolf were seated at opposite ends of the bar, in contrast Olimar and Robin had claimed the centermost seats and were deep in discussion. Isabelle placed her usual coffee order and took one of the open tables by the window. Another patron came into the shop. "Oh hello mayor," Isabelle said.

"Hey Isabelle," V said. He got his usual order from Brewster and joined Isabelle at the table. "Sorry we couldn't talk more at the mansion, I promised Little Mac we would have boxing practice then." V took a sip of his coffee.

"Oh it's no problem, I have quite the busy schedule too. Master Hand has some important work he needs help with, so I'll probably spend most of the day in his office anyway," Isabelle said. V frowned and looked Isabelle in the eyes.

"It's okay to take it easy, you know. I'm worried about how much work you do, your house looked like it had been barely used when I came in to help you pack. And while I was there, I realized you've never visited my house or had me over to visit yours. I was hoping being in the Mario Kart races and now Smash Mansion would help you relax, but you still seem as busy as always," V said.

"I'm not bothered by it. I like making it so that everything runs smoothly," Isabelle said. She looked down at her coffee, her hands remained motionless at her side.

"Please, just promise me you'll spend enough time in your room to unpack everything. With all the work you've done you deserve some time to yourself. Actually, I should apologize. I was a bad boss, you did most of the real work for me. But now I'm actually going to put in work to make sure Smashville continues being a great town, and so you can afford to do less work. Master Hand is going to be a better boss than I ever was for you," V said. He looked out the window at the star filled sky. Smashville had expanded greatly since Smash Mansion had been relocated there, but the light pollution laws kept the night sky the same.

"You're a great mayor," Isabelle said.

"Only because I had you as my secretary," V said.

"Well if you ever need help with something you can just come to me. Oh, but I do think that you'll do just fine on your own," Isabelle said. They both took a sip of their coffee.

"I've been working with Peach to arrange a little vacation to Wuhu Island a few months from now. Anybody who wants to come along can join, are you interested?" V asked. Isabelle wondered what the situation with Dharkon and Galeem would look like in a few months. There was a chance she would be needed to help Master Hand with something related to it, a vacation then would be irresponsible. Though it wouldn't be too hard to bring her work with her, and it wasn't like she would be of much help dealing with that problem anyway.

"That sounds amazing, I'm looking forward to it already," Isabelle said. From there the conversation went into less serious subjects. V talked about his experience fishing with Chrom and Mario, then shared some tips with Isabelle on which worlds had the best shops. Eventually he left to go back to the mansion, Isabelle remained at the table by herself.

Mega Man walked over to Isabelle's table and introduced himself. "Doctor Light sent me a message telling me to thank you for your email. He said it was very polite," Mega Man said.

"Thank you. I just hope those new supplies will help him with rebuilding the R. ," Isabelle said.

"He's been working on it for a while now, I hope he has a breakthrough soon. I was also wondering if you could pass along a fighter request to Master Hand for me," Mega Man said.

"Of course. Who is it?" Isabelle asked.

"His name is Euden, he comes from a world called Grastea. Marth met him too, and we both agreed he would make a great fighter here," Mega Man said. The name Grastea sounded familiar to Isabelle for some reason.

"I'll tell Master Hand for you," Isabelle said.

"Thank you," Mega Man said. He went back to the Belmonts and Pit right as Isabelle remembered where she had heard of Grastea before. She nearly spilled her coffee.

"Oh no, this is terrible," Isabelle said to herself. She had promised Master Hand to keep what she saw secret, so she couldn't tell Mega Man what had happened to his friend. Just like she couldn't explain to the mayor why she couldn't afford to truly relax for now. And since she was done with work for the day there was nothing she could do about it. As V's secretary she had been able to work non-stop, she had never realized that V had a problem with how much she worked.

Seeking some company Isabelle picked up her coffee and took the seat next to Falco at the bar. He ignored Isabelle's greeting and continued drinking coffee. "You've been a Smasher for a while right? Do you have any advice for a newcomer like me? I'm not really much of a fighter, but I want to do my best," Isabelle said.

"Then stop bothering me and get practicing," Falco said.

"Please, if some kind of emergency happens tomorrow there won't be any time to practice. We're not just fighting in some tournament, if something like that Tabuu person shows up again we have to beat them back," Isabelle said. Falco took a sip of his coffee.

"Guess you have a point there. Alright, I'd say the most important thing to keep in mind is that you can't afford to be predictable. If the enemy knows what you're doing next, you're getting shot down. And make sure you get in some actual experience before shit goes down," Falco said.

"Thank you. Could you help me practice sometime?" Isabelle asked. Falco sighed.

"Fine, just so you don't screw up too badly in your first real battle," Falco said. After taking another sip he turned to look at Isabelle. "You're Master Hand's secretary now, right? I've got some ideas on how to improve the hangar if he's interested."

"I can get work started on it the moment I get to his office tomorrow," Isabelle said. She listened carefully as Falco outlined his complaints with the current hangar. Those were the kinds of problems she was used to. The solutions were already starting to come together in Isabelle's head before she gave any response to Falco. Eventually the conversation shifted to some of the other Smashers. Isabelle finally found herself able to keep her mind on the things she could handle, and let the distant threats remain distant.

* * *

"So, how was your little vacation K. Rool?" Ridley asked. They were in one of the Space Pirate's most fortified ship. After being released from prison K. Rool had made his way to it as quickly as he could. It was just him, Ridley, and Dark Samus in the dimly lit and small room.

"The food there was terrible. You should thank me for putting up with all of that nonsense just to make a few friends. Not to mention all of that teleporting. When we make our own way for traveling through worlds, can it be something that doesn't make me dizzy?" K. Rool asked.

"Mission success?" Dark Samus inquired.

"Obviously. Captain Falcon's clone and I had a nice little chat, after nearly breaking his pathetic neck he agreed to tell Black Shadow about our offer. Also got some Zolorkians to give up where to find the leader of that coalition of theirs," K. Rool said.

"Ridley, finalize negotiations. Show Phazon and teleporter data to scientists," Dark Samus ordered. Ridley muttered some kind of complaint under his breath as he began the recall to Smash Mansion. Above them in the air vents, Greninja waited patiently for his chance to return undetected with the information. He had a feeling even further escalation was only a matter of time.

* * *

 **A/N: And with that we only have two more base game newcomers left to go, then it will be DLC time. Actually, there's something else planned too, but I'll talk about that in another chapter.**

 **This chapter is fairly short compared to some of the others, but I hope you appreciated the content. There's a good amount going on here after all, both with Isabelle and the larger state of Smash Mansion. I'm also excited to finally have an appearance from my main, Falco was actually a little hard for me to write at first, but as I wrote his scene with Isabelle something just fell into place. And for those who didn't get the references, Grastea is the world of Dragalia Lost, which has had collaboration events with both Fire Emblem and Mega Man. Hopefully one day I'll write a chapter in this fic for Euden. Also a shout out again to the people in Super Smash Prose for letting me talk about my ideas for the story with them. Ken's chapter is up next.**


	12. Ken: Confirmation

Ken sidestepped a punch from Little Mac and responded with one of his own. Little Mac ducked, and got hit with a Shoryuken for it. The attack sent Little Mac down for the count. Ken walked over and offered his hand, Little Mac took it and got back up on his feet. "That was a good fight. You and Ryu may have the same moves, but you don't use them the same way. Ryu's a lot safer than you," Little Mac said.

"Yeah, he complains about me being too stylish sometimes. You did good, I've fought boxers before and you're a better fighter than some I can name. You've got a long way to go before you can beat me though," Ken said.

"We'll see about that, next time we fight you're going down," Little Mac said.

"I'll have you know my last name is 'Masters' for a reason," Ken said. The two of them made their way into the halls of Smash Mansion and towards the dining hall. "Anyway, how has Ryu been doing here? He doesn't talk about himself that much."

"He's a nice guy, a little hardcore though. I don't think I've ever seen him do something that isn't about fighting. It's kind of hard to talk to him sometimes," Little Mac said.

"That's Ryu alright. He has all of these different worlds open to him and all he cares about is who he can fight and where he can train. Honestly, I'm a little worried about how little he's changed, even after some of the stuff he's had to go through." Ken said. He had been proud of Ryu for overcoming the Satsui no Hado, but he was still worried for Ryu's future. From day one Ryu had always been a little old fashioned, or archaic to put it less kindly. As the world kept developing there was a chance he'd just be left behind, and Ken didn't want to let that happen. There was no Shoryuken without Ryu or Ken.

The dining hall was already crowded when Little Mac and Ken arrived, the two of them split up after walking through the door. Ken grabbed an open seat next to Ryu and served himself some pasta. Ryu's plate was full, but rapidly had its contents depleted and refilled by Ryu. "How was your fight with Little Mac?" Ryu asked.

"You were right, he has a ton of talent. His fighting style is a little boring, but he knows how to adapt. Still, he's only as stylish as his opponent," Ken said.

"That's because he knows what to focus on, unlike some people," Ryu said.

"Hey, you're not slipping that one past me. From what I hear Little Mac can read you like a book now," Ken said.

"That's why I've been practicing some new techniques. Once Little Mac realizes all you care about is being flashy, he'll take you down quick," Ryu said.

"I'm not flashy, I'm stylish. There's a difference," Ken said. Both Ryu and Ken laughed at that.

"How have Elisa and Mel been?" Ryu asked.

"Great. Mel is growing up fast. You really need to visit more, he keeps asking if Uncle Ryu will be visiting for Thanksgiving, and then he's probably going to start asking about Christmas," Ken said.

"When are those? You know I've never been one to keep track of the holidays," Ryu said.

"The fourth Thursday of November and December 25th. You have a smartphone now, you have no excuse for not knowing the date anymore," Ken said.

"Honestly I just leave it in my room most of the time. I can never figure out how to use it," Ryu said.

"You really need to get with the times Ryu. There's no point in using your fist for the sake of the future if you don't stick around to see it," Ken said.

"That's the only path there is for me. I may not be able to visit your family for the holidays, but I'll use my strength to make it so that you can spend it with them. I'm not just training to become stronger anymore, I'm becoming stronger so that I can make a better world for Mel and the next generation. I know my path may look unchanged from your perspective, but I know and accept what's waiting for me at the end of it," Ryu said. It wasn't necessarily the words that made Ken frustrated, it was how Ryu said them.

"My idea of a better world is one where you visit my family for Christmas every year, or even have a family of your own. I think it's pretty lame to wield your strength for the sake of others and then stick to yourself for the rest of your life," Ken said.

"It's not that I'm avoiding people, you know me better than that Ken. I just want to keep moving and challenging more people. That's why I don't have as many chances to visit you as you'd like," Ryu said. Ken grunted and turned his concentration to the pasta in front of him. He didn't accept defeat, but further arguing was futile at that point. Ryu wasn't a man of words, he was a man of action. An argument would have to be backed up by action to make any real impact on Ryu.

The tension quickly defused when Ken shifted the subject to complaining about how much of a stick in the mud Guile was, though it couldn't be denied that Guile was a good uncle to Mel. From there Ken mentioned the rumors of some monster raiding old Shadaloo bases, and talked about how his first day at Smash Mansion had gone so far. When Ryu had finally eaten his fill he got up and left to do some training. Ken stayed behind for a chance to talk more with the other Smashers.

"What I am going to do with you Ryu?" Ken asked himself. He looked around the room and listened to distract himself. Richter was talking to some of the others about his girlfriend back home. That's when it hit Ken. "I guess I have to get Ryu's foot in the door for him and play matchmaker. If he got a girlfriend and then a wife, he'd have to think about something that isn't fighting."

"Did somebody say matchmaker?" Robin asked. He had been seated next to Ken during the entire conversation with Ryu.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"I'm sitting right here, I didn't have much choice in the matter. Anyway, if you want to play matchmaker I have quite some experience with that," Robin said. Chrom and Lucina groaned in unison at that.

"Then let's get started. So, who are our options? There's no way all of these women are single," Ken said.

"Let's see, for eligible singles we have Lucina, Samus, FT, Kamui, Bayonetta, Palutena, and Rosalina. As you can see both Chrom and Lucina herself are giving us death glares so she is off the table. I don't want to imagine what happens when FT and Ryu end up in the same room so definitely not her. As goddesses Palutena and Rosalina are probably out of his league. So that leaves Kamui, Bayonetta, and Samus," Robin said.

"I don't think either Bayonetta or Samus have the time for romance, and neither does Ryu," Chrom said.

"Kamui it is then," Robin said.

"Wait, Robin no, that was supposed to be shutting you down not helping you," Chrom said.

"This is what you get for all of those times you placed yourself in far more risk than necessary. Besides, Ryu not being the type for romance is why we're doing this in the first place. Come on Ken, we need to plan our strategy in private," Robin said. He and Ken departed from the dining room as Chrom facepalmed and Lucina sighed. Reflet saw them leaving from her spot on the other side of the dining hall, and quickly ran to catch up with them as they walked down the halls toward one of the lounges.

"Brother, who are we playing matchmaker for?" Reflet asked.

"Ryu. Ken thinks he really needs to get into a relationship so we're going to provide Ryu a little push," Robin said.

"Now that is going to be a challenge. Just like when we had to get Tharja off your back by pairing her with Libra. Except instead of a one track mind we're dealing with one of the densest objects in the universe, Ryu's head," Reflet said.

"You know as his friend I feel like I should fight you for that, but I can't exactly argue against it," Ken said. He pushed open the door to the lounge and let the twin tacticians get in first. "Now, if Ryu is ever alone with somebody he's definitely going to try and train with them. We need some way to cut him off from that without actually being there," Ken said.

"Maybe we could unleash some Risen on them while they're alone, and then Kamui can fall for Ryu as he heroically defeats all of them and protects her," Reflet suggested. Ken and Robin gave her a harsh look. "It was just a joke, come on Robin, do you really believe I'd go that far for our matchmaking addiction?"

"Maybe we can arrange some kind of special event, then give Kamui and Ryu seats right next to each other and away from all of their friends. We can put them between K. Rool and Wario so they don't talk to anyone else. Inkopolis has a lot of bands, we could try to get some to perform at the mansion," Robin said.

"Ryu isn't the type to attend a concert, trust me. If it isn't a fighting tournament he won't show, and if it's a fighting tournament he'll compete. We have two versus two battles here right? Why not find some way to pair Kamui and Ryu up for those?" Ken asked.

"It's going to take way more than that for the likes of Ryu. What we need is for them to train together and then distract them with something at least vaguely romantic. Like surprise fireworks, or maybe we could tell Ryu about all of those abusive, guilt tripping letters Kamui has been getting, and then he'll comfort her," Reflet said.

"I'm missing a lot of context here," Ken commented.

"Kamui and her twin Corrin are royalty being fought over by two different families they have connections to, they fled to Smash Mansion in order to get away from all of that. Unfortunately, Master Hand is big on cross world communication, so there's been a non-stop stream of letters begging them to come back," Reflet said. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"I think Kamui needs a lot more than just a boyfriend from the sound of it," Ken said.

"But don't you see, having a boyfriend would help her out greatly. If those siblings of her ever find their way here then Ryu can walk up to them and go 'hey my girlfriend said she didn't want to talk to you so back off, you don't really care for her the way I do,' and then Ryu and Kamui will have children who can combo the Shoryuken into assuming their dragon form and will establish a dynasty of-" Kamui was interrupted by Robin punching her in the gut. She leaned against the wall for support. Ken raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, I always do this when she gets like that. It's just another Tuesday for her," Robin said. Ken wondered what kind of weirdos he had gotten himself involved with. At least they were the entertaining, mostly harmless, kind of weird.

"Let's just start with Ryu and Kamui training together for now. There's no way Ryu is getting in a relationship with someone who can't give him a good fight," Ken said.

"Right, simple steps, and I'll keep the fantasizing to myself," Reflet said. The trio of matchmakers walked out into the hallway, where they saw Corrin walking somewhere. "Oh Corrin, what a coincidence, do you know where your sister is?" Reflet asked.

"She said she wanted to try training with Ryu by the lake out back. She wanted me to go with her, but I made a promise to visit the museum with Meta Knight," Corrin said. Ken, Reflet, and Robin all exchanged looks with each other.

"Oh, I see. Guess we'll talk with her later, wouldn't want to get between Ryu and a potential training partner. We're going to take Ken up to one of the balconies to try and get him into bird watching. Have fun at the museum," Robin said. Reflet and Ken followed him towards the staircase as Corrin continued on his way, oblivious to what was really going on. Ken had to slow himself down so he didn't overtake Robin.

"So where are we actually going?" Ken asked.

"The balcony, but we're watching Ryu and Kamui instead of birds," Robin said.

"I've got some special binoculars that can also let us hear what they're saying, I'll go get them," Reflet said. When they reached the top floor Reflet ran off to her room while Robin and Ken made their way to the balcony. They could see Ryu and Kamui in the distance, but due to the distance it was hard to tell what exactly they were doing. Reflet quickly joined them with binoculars in hand, there were only two pairs. She kept one for herself and handed the other to Ken despite Robin's protests. Robin crossed his arms and took a seat on the couch as Ken and Reflet stood by the edge of the balcony to use their binoculars.

"It's just, I feel so weak. I was told to pick a side, and I couldn't bring myself even to say no. When Master Hand gave Corrin and I the chance to run that's exactly what we did. That's why I want to train with you. You're always so confident and focused, if I could just have even a little of the strength you do, I'd be a way better person," Kamui said. She looked into the water of the lake. Ken instantly felt guilty for the eavesdropping. In his defense, he had thought it was literally just training. Not something as serious as that. He was in too deep now to look away.

"I'm still not yet ready to take a disciple, but I can train alongside you. And I don't think you're weak at all," Ryu said.

"You don't?" Kamui turned to look Ryu in the eyes.

"Everybody around you tried to steer you down a certain path, and you resisted them. That too is a form of strength, to stay true to who you are no matter how hard people try to force you to play their twisted games. It took me a long time to find that strength. Don't let anybody make you believe that you're weak, or that you need to play by their rules to become stronger," Ryu said. Kamui fidgeted with the pouch on her belt that held her dragonstone.

"Thank you, Ryu. Someday I do plan on returning to my own world with Corrin, and finding some way to settle this mess I'm stuck in. And we're going to do it our way. Though we may have no choice but to fight. When that time comes, would you be willing to help me?" Kamui asked.

"Of course, you'll need a few friends to stand by your side when you meet your siblings again. My strength exists to fight for the future, and when you fight to take control of your fate I'll be there. Now let's have a practice battle, maybe that will make you see you already have all the strength you need," Ryu said. Kamui laid her Yato Blade on the ground and assumed a fighting stance. She and Ryu charged at each other.

"Well, that's not exactly what we wanted, but at least Ryu seems to have said the right things to cheer Kamui up," Reflet said. She put her pair of binoculars on a nearby table and sat down next to Robin on the couch.

"Ryu really is looking out for people, just like he said he would. Not that I had any doubts. It's just reassuring to see it in action," Ken said. He was watching the practice fight through the binoculars. From how Kamui fought Ken could tell that Ryu really had made an impact on her. He had an unconventional way of making a better world, but Ryu was still getting results. It was also obvious that Ryu was going to win against Kamui, however that wasn't the point of the battle.

"So, what's the next step going to be? From the sound of it they got off to a good start, I never saw them interact that much before today," Robin said. He had taken a small tome out of his pocket and was flipping through it. Ken tossed his pair of binoculars to Reflet and turned to face her and Robin.

"Let's not force things too much. They met up on their own without us doing anything, we should just watch and not ruin anything with our meddling. I think I should have more faith in Ryu, even if I'm not going to drop this issue with him," Ken said.

He's definitely going to need a push if you want him to get romantic. Well luckily as a fellow lady-" Reflet jabbed Robin right as he was about to make a comment "-I'm in the perfect position to help give Kamui advice and pass it off as normal girl talk. You two can have fun trying to get through Ryu's thick head. After we watch them for a bit to make sure we know what we're doing obviously," Reflet said.

"Since you two are volunteering to help me is there anything I can do for you in return?" Ken asked.

"Unless you have a way to keep Ridley or K. Rool away from the teleporter room I can't think of anything. Those two keep on causing trouble, but since they're Smashers they never get put down for too long," Robin said.

"Ryu mentioned some of this to me. I told him not to worry about our world since we have lots of good fighters. Guile already knows to be on the lookout for people obviously not from our world, right now he's busy tracking down that weird monsters whose been raiding old Shadaloo bases and…"

"Are you okay Ken?" Reflet asked.

"I just realized something. I think Ridley may have made a few trips to my world already. There's been word of something that matches his description raiding a bunch of places that used to belong to this one evil organization, Shadaloo. Let me send a quick text to Guile, he'll be able to confirm that I'm right," Ken said. He pulled out his phone and sent a picture of Ridley to Guile. The response was almost immediate and exactly what Ken expected. "It really is Ridley."

"Of course it is. Whenever something happens now it's always because Dark Samus told Ridley or K. Rool to do something. If you want to stop Ridley you better catch him in the act, the moment he's back in the mansion you won't be able to touch him. Robin, go plan something to ruin Ridley's day. I'm letting Peach know about this," Reflet said. She got up from the couch and marched back into the mansion hallways.

"Could you put me on the phone with Guile? I think I have a plan on how to handle this," Robin said. Ken made the call and handed his phone to Robin.

* * *

It had been a long time since Ken had to go inside a Shadaloo base. "You know, this looks exactly like the kind of evil base that shows up in those TV shows my kid watches," Ken said.

"You're not supposed to talk while waiting to ambush someone," Robin said. The two of them had hidden behind an upturned table in the corner of the room. For an abandoned base it didn't show many signs of decay, the upturned table was one of the few signs that the base had been forcibly shut down. At the back of the room was a computer terminal, crouching in front of it was Guile. The sound of something inhuman approaching rang out through the base. Then Ridley walked into the room.

"So you're the one who's been raiding all of those old Shadaloo bases. I don't know what you want, but nothing with Shadaloo involved is any good. Surrender now or else," Guile said.

"Oooh how scary, you're crouching in a corner," Ridley said mockingly.

"Sonic Boom!" Before Ridley could react the wave of ki struck him in the chest and knocked him back. Snarling, Ridley took to the air and tried to fly around the incoming projectiles. Guile's Sonic Booms intercepted Ridley no matter where he went, each hit earning an even louder scream. Eventually Ridley had enough and tore through the Sonic Boom with his claw, then dive bombed Guile.

Robin readied his tome, but Ken stopped him from using it. "Flash Kick!" In an instant Ridley's chin and Guile's feet became intimately acquainted. Ridley fell in an arc towards the ground. "I can do this all day big guy," Guile taunted. Ridley pulled himself up from the floor. Before he could make another move Ken jumped up and fired a Hadouken at his head. That sent Ridley down for the count.

"I didn't even need to do anything, you two are good," Robin said as he got up and walked around the table.

"Always helps to have backup. Besides this ambush was your idea. So, are you taking this thing back to that mansion?" Guile asked, gesturing to Ridley's unconscious body.

"Actually, you can keep him for now. I bet there are a lot of questions your superior officers would like to ask him. We'll try to stall Master Hand's attempts to get him released as best we can, if you get anything out of him let us know," Robin said.

"Got it. Thank you for all of your help," Guile said. He held out his fist, Robin gave him a fist bump.

"You can head back to the mansion on your own Robin, while I'm here in my world I'll go home and visit my family," Ken said.

"I'll see you later then," Robin said. He activated the transport back to the mansion and faded from sight. Ken and Guile then began the frustrating work of dragging Ridley's unconscious body out of the base.

* * *

 **A/N: Street Fighter is another franchise where I had to do some digging on the lore, so special thanks to the Street Fighter wiki and one of my friends for all the help they gave me. This chapter may have a bit more comedy in it, especially compared to the previous one, but hopefully I got across the genuine concern Ken had for Ryu beneath the shipping silliness. Reflet has been a mostly comedic character so far, but she does have a serious side, it's just that the scenes she walks into happen to be the lighthearted ones. I don't intend to turn this into a shipping fic so don't expect to see actual Ryu x Kamui in a later chapter, though I may have accidentally sold myself on the ship for future fics so who knows. And I'd like to apologize for Ridley once again getting beat up, I guess it's kind of his thing now.**

 **Next up is Incineroar.**


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